Horizon Protocol Zer0
by nashmeira
Summary: HORIZON:ZERO DAWN Continuation. The secrets of Aloy's past are finally put to rest, but her adventure isn't over yet. As Aloy returns from finding her truth she happens upon a secret that was never meant to be unearthed. Pandora's box is opened & unleashes a Beast that will do anything to extinguish the only light that may help save GAIA & the world from an even greater threat.
1. 1:1 Protocol Zer0

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Please support the official release.

...

 _Forward_

 _There will be spoilers thought the story... Enjoy._

...

Falling back right into the system of,

Falling back on all that's erased,

When fighting back right out of this system,

Means falling back right into this space.

Yes, falling back right in with the system,

Who'll see you falling back to the end,

When falling back is better than simply,

Means falling back into pieces again...

-Alexander: Brute Justice

...

HORIZON

Protocol Zer0

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

No beta reader sorry

...

Over the last few weeks my world had changed so much. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that something as simple as finding out about my origins would it lead to so much. After the battle of Meridian Plato we had celebrated and to everyone there it was over. The Shadow Carja were scattered there leader dead, along with the mad AI Hades. The world, such as it was was saved.

But it wasn't over for me.

Two days later Varl and the other braves began there journey back the Sacred Lands and I saw them off wishing them well. It had surprised them to learn that I would not be returning with them. Not directly anyway.

I still had one last thing to do. The goal that started all of this.

I still had to find my answers, I still had to find Dr. Elisabet Sobeck.

╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑

 _"What do you want Ted?" Cried the irritated voice of young brunette. She swiveled her chair so that she was now looking eye to eye with the aforementioned Ted. The words coming out with a venom that made the taller man take a deep breath. The old line 'If looks could kill.' Ran through his mind._

 _"I was hoping to talk, I have a lot of regrets and for what it's worth I wanted to try and clear the air before..." He trailed off. Looking down like a child whose mother had just chastised him._

 _"I have regrets also Ted you want to know what regret is chief among them." She waited just long enough for him to look but before continuing. "I regret that day in the boardroom when I was sixteen. Remember? When I threw a glass of water in your face!" He slightly chuckled at that._

 _"Then I forgi.." Ted was cut off before he could finish._

 _"I regret that it was water and not_ _Hydrofluoric acid!" She spat as she pushing the bridge of her oval rim glasses up. She then fixed him with a death glare._

 _"Nadia I can't change the past, and now I'm doing what I can. I wanted to talk to you about something important. As colleges, maybe not friends but it is important."_

 _"Zero Dawn is important, and Elisabet is a college you're just a guy that writes checks and takes the credit for everyone else's work. Now what do you want, because you are keeping me from my work." Nadia stood up from the chair and turned from Ted. She had enough of this began to leave, she didn't see any more value in the conversation. It was all she could do not to punch the man._

 _"Do you remember DeepDive?" Like running into a wall she stopped. She could hear him coming closer but she didn't allow herself to turn around and when he spoke again he was right behind her. "I never put all my eggs in one basket. As the saying goes." Nadia now infuriated turned on him and just as there eye met she felt a stinging in her neck. "I believe in Elisabet but I'm not as smart as her or you, or that dream team you all have. But I always have a backup plan."_

 _Nadia stepped back grabbing at her neck as her sight grew fussy, her hearing muffled. She tried to speak but her words slurred. Her strength in her legs suddenly felt very heavy, she was on her knees, the scream for help died on her lips._

 _"No, I'm not as smart as you. But, as you said I can just write checks to people that are smart." The fuzzy image of Ted Faro was right in front of her, she wanted to claw his eyes out but she couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag. "This was what I was sorry about Nadia. I'm sorry it's come to this, but better to be safe than sorry."_

 _Nadia blinked slowly but it was no use the light faded, the sounds died out and the world went dark._

( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )

The snow was falling again. I had gone farther west than any Nora had ever traveled. It had taken me weeks to get there with terrain and the weather as it was. While I was not a fan of the Banuk garb however I was happy for its warmth it now provided. Winter hear was coming in fast and as much as I liked the protection that the armor left by the Old Ones it did nothing to protect from the elements.

Now I was returning to where it all began, full circle, at the end of this long journey I had found her, Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, the woman who saved the world and my mother.

As I stood there over her final resting place it brought so many emotions she had saved the world she had sacrificed everything and at the same time it was hard to wrap my head around it. She was my mother, but she was also me. I didn't really know what to think about that, had she, now as me saved the world a second time?

That thought hung heavy over me all the way to her home. A place once called Carson City Nevada. It had taken me weeks to find it but finally I did and her. By that time I had decided that I didn't care, I wasn't Elisabet Sobeck. But maybe I could be Aloy, daughter of Elisabet Sobeck.

I stayed there for a few days talking with her, telling her about my life growing up, about Rost. About the world she saved, about what happened and how it was almost destroyed again. Then about how her daughter and her friends had saved it just like she and her friends did so long ago.

In the end I couldn't stay there forever and she would not have wanted me to. There was to much left to do, to see and to learn. So at the end of my tales I thanked her for what she did as I held her locket. It was a locket that looked like I world and I would cherish it forever.

I laid her to rest there on that spot that she had set for close to a thousand years. I wish I could do more, somethings should be preserved from the old world. Especially someone that sacrificed everything they had for their world. Then the next day I left to return back to the Nora, whether or not I would stay once I let Tersa know I found her I didn't know.

I had no intentions of destroying them with the truth. But I didn't expect them to worship me like some god. The truth was a heavy burden that I carried knowing now what happened to make the world I knew what it is was mind boggling.

Currently my plan was to make it back to Meridian then after resting up a day or two return to the sacred lands. I had promised Avad I would return to regale him with my tales of adventure. Right now however I was wondering if I was going to freeze to death.

The trek to Carson City had taken me over the great mountains and at the time it was not snowing. Now however the snow was coming down heavier now so my options were quickly getting smaller. I could ether find a place to bunk down for a while or try and make it through the mountains before winter was in full swing. I guess I could add die of hypothermia to that list too.

 _Excitement is never far from Aloy, daughter of Elisabet!_

I looked out over the valley below and there seemed to be some ruins scattered about it.

"Come on boy well find some shelter and you can rest up." One habit I had started when being out here in my solitude was walking with the Strider that I had taken control of. I knew it wasn't going to answer me but it helped being out here by myself for the last few weeks.

As we reached the valley floor I scanned the area with my Focus, it seemed that farther I got form the Cauldrons the number of machines were lessened, I'm not complaining though. But that also meant if anything happened to my Strider then I would have to travel on foot.

There didn't seem to be any machines around the area but the closer we got to the ruins I begin to pick up a signal, there was a high energy output coming from around here, one almost as strong as a Cauldron. It seemed to be coming from the middle of the ruins and as I looked it seemed to be underground, no big surprise there.

So when I finally made it to ruins where the signal was coming from I scanned the area again. This was the place, there were a few watchers in the distance but nothing to worry about. I dropped off my Strider and grabbed my pack. The place was in pretty good condition, easy to defend if it came to that.

The doors of the structure had long been destroyed so I walked into the large open area. I was immediately welcomed by a cheery voice of a female and a virtual rendering of the name of the place.

 _"Welcome to Pearl Labs. For over 75 years Pearl Labs has been a leader in biotech and pharmaceuticals and with the acquisition of Pearl Labs to F.A.S. it promises to be another great 75 more."_

"Sorry lady but it wasn't that great for anyone." I shook my head.

ヽ(￣д￣;)ノ

After getting my baring's on the ground floor and dropping off my pack in a good hiding spot I started exploring the ruins.

From some of the documents that I had picked up on my Focus the place was made for a collection of Doctors but not those like Elisabet but healers. When I reached the second floor of the build thanks to an empty shaft I was in luck, there was still power so there were a few lights still working. Say what you want about the old ones but they built things to last. As I leisurely ruffled thought the open rooms I didn't feel a need to try and break into any that were sealed. Yes I want to know more about the place but the signal was the most promising option for that. With any luck it would be a data storage device like the one I found at the FAS ruins.

There was a sealed door at the end of the corridor and only one room left on this floor that was sealed looking I had a stroke of luck sitting on a desk was a data pad. Queuing up my Focus I downloaded the data and a few moments later there was a piece of virtual parchment in front of me.

-BEGIN LINE-

[25-12-2065]

Dr. Gregory Blanch

Merry Christmas! For whatever that means any more. Dr. Banarie and I had a drink together this morning to celebrate the holiday, he doesn't do the Christmas thing but he was not opposed to having one last drink with a college. He left a few hours ago, to head home… I'll probably never see him again.

The patient is still under and DeepDream is proofing well. We'll be packing up and shipping out in the morning and lockdown will take care of the rest. No one can get into the lab after the lockdown unless they have high level clearance and it could only be opened without it from the inside. Not like there will be anyone to try and break in. They can say what they want but the truth is it's the end. I'm not dumb there is no stopping the swarm at this point. Whatever the hell Zero Dawn is it's not going to save a damn soul.

[26-12-2065]

Well this is it. I'm heading out to Site-42, Faro has found another use for me so there is more to do before the end. Everything is packed and shipping out now.

Good luck old girl. God speed.

-END OF LINE-

"What did they do here?" I looked around the room once again for more answers but there were none. "More questions, always more questions." I stepped back out of the room and appraised the sealed door. It was a blast door but unlike the other it didn't require just a simple virtual spin lock, it actually scanned me like a vault door would.

[HOLD FOR IDENTA-SCAN]

I sighed as like so many time before I was scanned and like so many times before there was the image of my mother and it compared us before announcing I was allowed entrance.

[Welcome Dr. Sobeck. This is your first time at this facility, please continue to the lift and proceed to floor B5 so that we can process you through security.]

"Really the door wasn't enough?"

The surprise this time was that what I expected to be a shaft was not there was a tiny room in front of me lit with lights and there was… music playing. When I entered the room, I looked around and as I looked back from where I had come I noticed there were buttons on the wall. B1, B2…

When I finally pressed the button I was surprised to feel the floor move, no, the whole room moved it was an elevator in a why like the those in Meridian but this one moved to more than just the platue and the village it could stop on any of the floors that. After a moment, there was a chime and the monotone voice again spoke up.

[FIFTH FLOOR – SURGERY THEATRE, LEVEL ONE STORAGE, DEEPDREAM]

There was a hiss of air as the door opened and I exited the elevator, it looked like a waiting room in a similar style to the one at Zero Dawn. There was a terminal here and I scanned it to see if there was anything I could find out.

[ACTION LOG]

[25-12-2065]

#37593-A12 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#37532-B77 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#97596-C34 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#37590-D94 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#47572-E67 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#67531-F65 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#72323-G43 = TRANSFER = YES | DEEPDREAM

#37537-H27 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

#27530-I95 = TRANSFER = NO | Euthanize

Had anyone been there to see me I'm sure my face had a grim look. Eight people had died here. I looked to the right and at the end was yet another large sealed door. But straight ahead was a long corridor with rooms on each side each labeled with a letter A, B, C and so on. The door to the rooms were shut but there was an observation window so I was able to see inside and inside each one was a bed and in it was a black bag with a somewhat human outline. They had killed all these people and just left the body's here.

On and on till the end and the only exception to the rule of death was room G. It was empty. I had no interest in disturbing the dead any more then I had to so I made my way back to reception and headed for the sealed door. After yet another ID scan the door opened and inside was unlike anything I had ever seen. There was a bed that seemed to have some kind of cover that would go over the whole thing it didn't seem like it would be comfortable. The bed was bad of metal and there were wires and other things running all around it to a towering group of wire in the middle of the room.

Other devices and large data units hummed in the room as I looked around and my eyes rolled.

"Oh look. Another vault door."

After approaching this door, I was again scanned and allowed entrance. The lights flickered and the room eliminated. I walked in and apprised the large glass window in front of me and the terminal in front of it. To the right there was another table that was agendas the wall and seemed to have a small door at the head of it. I interfaced with the terminal with my Focus and for the first time in a while a menu appeared in my view.

[Access Granted]…

[ACTIVE PROJECTS]

#45498 = EXPIRED

#56274 = EXPIRED

#67721 = EXPIRED

#69751 = EXPIRED

#70231 = EXPIRED

#73232 = ACTIVE

[…PLEASE SELECT PROJECT]

"Not really sure which project I want but let go with the _active_ one." I was beginning to think that I might have an unhealthy habit talking to myself but there was no one else was around.

[PROJECT #73232 | STATUS = ACTIVE | STATUS CHANGE = PENDING EVENT: PROTOCOL ZERO]

[DO YOU WISH TO OVERRIDE?]

"This could be bad." My logical mind told me, but the curios Sawtooth in me said go for it. "I don't know what this is, for all I know it could be the next Hades... but… YES Override." Then another alert popped up into my view.

[OVERRIDE NOT ALLOWED! STATUS CHANGE ONLY UNDER EVENT CONDITIONS.]

"What? Then why ask me at all!

[DO YOU WISH TO EXECUTE PROTOCOL ZERO?]

"Yes, override execute protocol zero you stupid thing."

[OVERRIDE: ACTIVATE PROTOCOL ZERO?]

"Yes, whatever activate."

[PROTOCOL ZERO IN EFFECT! THIS ACTION CANNOT BE ABORTED!]

[BEGINNING REGULATION AND ACTIVATION OF PRIORITYS…PLEASE WAIT.]

[ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION = +/- FOURTEEN HOURS… ]

"Well good thing I was planning on staying the night." As I looked incredulously at the window and the circular hatches further in the room I was surprised to see a machine of some kind begin to move. Whirring noises flooded the room as yellow lights began to blink and displays light up all around the room. One showing the face of a person, she was short from the image and seemed to be wearing glasses on her face. She was wearing a while looking lab coat over her clothes and on her shirt, were words that said Journey. As I read over the info about her I also found a name listed for her. On a profile window.

[PATIENT LOG]

#NADIA ODINE

#BLOOD TYPE: XX+

#STATUS = PENDING...

#BEGINNING ACTIVATION...

 _BANG!_

I jumped as the sound echoed throughout the room and the hatch door near the metal bed opened, there was a brief blast of cold air as a large looking device covered in glass was pushed through an opening in the wall onto the bed. Ice formed on the glass seconds after it was entered the room and a new window opened. It displayed again the image of Nadia Odine and that it was beginning activation. The ice on the glass began to thin and I was rendered speechless at the young women that I had been seeing on the screens was right in front of me and it was not just a picture it was her.

Nadia Odine was right there in front of me, not a corpse from a long-forgotten era but a real person of a long-forgotten era. This must be one of the cryo things that Sylince spoke of. I wasn't sure but I was pretty certain that she was being woken up. Points lite up on the screen as small mechanical arms inside the tube began to poke and prod her unconscious body. Then there was a ripple on the screen in the middle of her chest reading heart rate.

Nadia Odine, an Old One was alive.

(((( ;°Д°))))

 _"The procedure was a success Mr. Faro but are you sure about this? This just seems… wrong. More than likely she is never going to wake up. For a situation like Protocol Zero to be initiated... Sir she very well may be the last living being on earth." Dr. Gregory dipped his head shaking._

 _"Well if she is the last living being alive and everything else has failed then she is the best chance the world has. I am not putting all my faith in Zero Dawn if there is a chance for another way." Ted Faro looked through the glass as a glass cylinder was inserted into a wall with other such cylinders._

 _Ted turned away from the glass and started to walk out of the room, Dr. Gregory following right behind into lab. Medical tools were still on the table most still bloody from a past procedure. The poor Doctor wiped sweat from his brow as he looked around the room._

 _"How long do you need to be here to monitor for any problems?" Ted asked as the two entered the empty waiting room._

" _A week at least to get the other patients ready and then to button up everything…"_

 _"Euthanize them. There is no time for moving them out and we don't have the resources to move them and everything else. So how long do you need to confirm that Miss Odine is good?"_

 _The horror the doctor face was palpable. He had to put his foot down. Wasn't his hands red enough already._

 _"Ted you can't expect us to just kill them!" Ted Faro rounded on the doctor fixing him with a gaze._

 _"We will not be moving them out. You can either give them a peaceful end or you can seal them in here when the facility goes into lockdown. If you don't like that then you can stay here with them forever. Now how long?" The doctor was speechless and could only stutter as he looked down realizing how grim the situation was._

 _"A week should be enough, I'll dismiss any staff on the 24_ _th_ _and... I'll take care of the rest myself. The transport can be here the 26_ _th_ _, I'll have the facility locked down and be ready to go by then." Ted stepped into the elevator._

 _"See that you are doctor." He said as the elevator door closed._

 _ೕ(˃̵ᴗ˂̵ ๑)_

From what the displays were saying I had some time before this Nadia Odine was awake. I had just finished off some of the rabbit I had hunted down and was laying on my pack looking off into the distance. The stars were out and the sky was exceptionally clear, not a cloud to be seen.

I tried to imagine what this place must have been like back then. All the people moving about in their daily lives that was so far removed from the daily life of someone today. Then my mind traveled to the present, how could anyone that that lived then understand the world now. The two were as different at night and day. The old world had been destroyed but it wasn't the fault of everyone it was the fault of a few that had caused it. No greed and power and the lust to have more of it had caused the end, which was something that had not changed. Maybe that was something that was passed on into all human beings. Just most of us were strong enough to control it.

From the info I read Nadia had been a member of Zero Dawn but the records indicated that she was brought here before ZD was finished. Brought by Ted Faro himself, but there is something else going on here. What was the procedure they performed on her and what was Protocol Zero? The notes I found from Dr. Gregory seemed really certain that she was never going to wake up again. Which very well might have been the case if I didn't happen by here. The question of what this Protocol Zero was still bothered her. In my frustration I had done something that I knew nothing about.

"Too late now, and I'm pretty sure Gaia being destroyed was as bad as it could get."

I looked back out through the roof again at the sky and stars. Connecting invisible lines between them the Watcher, the Grazer, the great Stormbird and so on. As I let my imagination create shapes and images it occurred to me that the stars were the only things that was the same. Due to Ted Faro's intervention and destruction of Apollo they were the only witnesses still left other than a few scraps of knowledge they were scattered at best.

"It wasn't all bad, it just ended that way."

I continued to look off into space and draw constellations in the night till I started too nodded off. I could afford to get a few hours of sleep. There was nothing else to do but wait now and it had been a long day. With tomorrow being even longer if Nadia Odine actually woke up.

(-, – )…zzzZZZ

 _Nadia walked into a small room that was sparsely decorated. A few small potted plants were on a shelf just above the bed that was made in to the wall. A desk also made into the same wall as the bed a recliner like chair and a small closet. Rummaging through said closet, was a female in what could only be a wheelchair though obviously top of the line and she seemed to be complaining to herself in a low voice._

 _"What's got you in a fix?" Said Nadia to the chair bound female. Who turned to address her, a pout forming on her face?_

 _"I don't ask for much but could they not put a little more color in the uniforms. There ether white or gray with only a light stitching of color on the zipper line." She turned her chair following the commands to turn her without the need for hand controls. The white choker around her neck transmitting the command to turn her chair to face Nadia who just smiled._

 _"I'm sorry Lady Hannah I was unaware of your preferences, I shall pass them along." Nadia leaned in planting a quick chaste kiss on Hannah's cheeks. The chair bound girl smiled as Nadia set down on the bed facing her lover at a more equal level._

 _"Stop that, you know what I mean. I just really miss my garden. How is everything going so far? Dr. Sobeck and the rest of the team doing well I guess? Is she sleeping at all?"_

 _"Doctor Mark made her go get some sleep. He threatened to have SecOps restrain her so he could administer a sedative if she didn't." Nadia chuckled._

 _"Well she is not the only one."_

 _"Aww are you really worried about me sleeping or is my special little lady missing me?" Hannah's face turned red._

 _"Quite it!" Her hands covered her face in embarrassment. Nadia sighed._

 _"As much as I would like to tease you some more I unfortunately have to leave in an hour. There is a minor issue at FS-43KB, the programs worked on the modules I have here but did not work on the one there when they went to implement the final patch and the algorithms that... sorry you know I get carried away." Nadia bit her bottom lip her bad habit of talking about stuff that Hannah had no earthly idea of what she was saying._

 _"Oh, how long will you be gone?" Hannah's expression failing a little._

 _"It's just over night, I should be back tomorrow and we can have lunch." Hannah just nodded. "What's wrong?"_

 _"It's nothing, just when you're not here I feel a little overwhelmed. All these really smart people and then there is just me."_

 _"Come on now you're smart just in different ways."_

 _"Nadia if it wasn't for you I would be out there with everyone else living in ignorance till the end. You're the only reason I get to live out my life here in some semblance of peace."_

 _"Well I think that might be changing very soon. Dr. Samali that's working on Apollo mentioned something about methods of teaching children and I happen to overhear. I suggested that she might like to talk with a teacher that has taught children. She thought the idea was great so I told her you would meet her at the Apollo lab tomorrow at 0900. She is really nice and I think you will have fun." Nadia smiled as she looked into the eyes of her lover and the gloom seemed to melt way._

 _"That should be fun. I'm glad I can at least do something. So umm..." The blush returning to Hannah's cheeks. "So how long till you have to leave?" Nadia cocked her head to the side as her eyebrow arched._

 _"About an hour why."_

 _"That's just enough time for a quickie." It was now Nadia's turn to blush. The last thought Nadia had as Hannah's lips crashed down on her own was._

 _'How did I get so…'_

(;¬_¬)

'… _lucky?'_

The last word of the dream still hung fresh as eye lids cracked open, the light of the room was like daggers. Her body felt numb, she felt weak. So weak it was almost too hard to blink.

Her eyes slowly moved around the room as the pain from the lights lessened. It looked clean, medical clean, things were coming into complete focus and her slow breathing was getting easier she was starting to feel less numb her mind was still trying to rationalize what was happening. Where was she, what was today? She had things to do.

[HELLO DR. ODINE. PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO STAND YOU ARE STILL WEAK. YOUR VITALS ARE COMING INTO THE NORMAL RANGE. THE PROCESS CAN BE DISORIENTING, THIS IS NORMAL.]

Nadia cold only look up at the unflattering ceiling and her mind was racing. None of the questions were getting answer laying here but she was still weak. She began to do calculations in her head to pass the time, her breath became controlled and just as the computer had said things were starting to feel better. Fingers began to twitch at her command. Then toes, then her hand pulled into a fist flexing.

Then went on for some time and while she still felt off she was finally able to set up. Hear head moved around flexing her right hand came up to her face brushing hair out of her way but it stopped. Looking at her hand they seemed different somehow, flexing right and bringing her left to do the same.

"Where am I?" she said aloud.

[YOU ARE AT PEARL LABS PROVO, UTAH. YOU WERE INDENTURED HERE UNTIL PROTOCOL ZERO WAS ENACTED. AS IT IS NOW ACTIVE I WILL DELIVER THE MESSAGE THAT WAS LEFT FOR YOU. STANDBY…]

The lighting in the room dimmed slightly as a hologram appeared off with the Pearl Labs logo, a blue leaf but created out of ones and zeros. She knew the logo well, she had in her earlier years worked for Peal Labs. She clinched her jaw thinking about that and what she lost the day she was fired.

The logo faded and then none other than Ted Faro stepped forward. This caused not only caused Nadia's jaw to again tighten but also her hands furled into fists as the hologram began to speak.

 _["Hello Dr. Odine,"_ Said the hologram. Nadia rolled her eyes, she never received a doctorate, she didn't have time for that there was more important things then an expensive piece of paper. _"If you're watching this then the worst has happened. Zero Dawn has failed and you very well might be the last living being on the planet."_

The color drained from her face at hearing these words. The question of how long she had been here was hanging heaver as the hologram went on.

 _"As you pointed out I'm not the smartest guy in the world when it comes to science. You, Sobeck and that dream team are far smarter then I will ever be. But you were right about me being able to write checks. See I don't have to be the smartest guy. I just have to pay for smart people."_ Ted sighed and looked down trying to regain his composure. The after a moment he returned to addressing the viewer _._

 _"Sorry, sorry. I believed in Elisabet but nothing is 100% so I came up with a backup plan. Y_

 _ou. Should Zero Dawn fail, if G-Prime is compromised then Protocol Zero would take over and wake you up. You ..ee. ….."_

 _..._

[DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED. ATTEMPTING RECOVERY… PARTIAL RECOVER SUCCESSFUL RESUMING PLAYBACK.]

 _..._

 _"…ake it to Site-B. There you will be able to bring everything back online and restart Zero Dawn and hopef.. fix m….. Site-… l…ted at 23.9191 …..44….2.._

 _The swarm wil… ….. …en deactivated by now, that was one of the stipulations for Protocol Zero so you don't have to worry. We were n…. …. … . … SO you wiLL have ….. ….. . . … .. .. . .. . .. . … Central core. .. .. .. .. onlineeeeee….._

 _I'm sorr….. it has come to this but I wasn't going to risk anyone else because you have the know-how if there is a problem so….. Site-B can be accessed us….. . .. .. .. .. . . . o key allows you to h..e O…g. aceess. ..ss.s. .s.s.s.._

 _I know it doe… ow but I'm sorry about ever..hing, and for what I .id then an. w..t I have done to you now…. …d luck a.. God speed…"_

[DR. ODINE I AM DETECTING AN INCREASE IN HEART RATE DO YOU REQUIRE A SEDATIVE?]

Throughout the speech her legs had slowly pulled into her chest. Her arms circled around them pulling them tight to her chest. Ted had done something to her, had someone do something to her and now she might be the only living being on the planet. It was too much. This couldn't be real, this was wrong all wrong then it hit her. If Minerva had cracked the Faro Swarm code to deactivate them then that meant she had been out for at least 300 years.

"That can't be, there was no way to keep a human body alive this long." She had to think rationally. She was a not a medical doctor, she would have to trust the fact that she was alive as evident that there was some way to keep a human alive. "How long have I been," She hesitated on the terminology the system here used. " _Intrude_ here at this facility?"

[CURRENTLY THIS FACILITY HAS MAINTAINED YOUR LIFE FOR 334,261 DAYS DR. ODINE.]

Nadia's mouth went slack. Almost a thousand years, she had been here for almost a thousand years. Taking calming breath Nadia picked her jaw up off the floor and began to think. This wasn't right this was wrong, she should be dead she and… She closed her eyes banishing those thoughts. She would dowel on them later she had to think. This was not a time to ball like a baby, she would do that later after she knew what she was doing.

But that was a problem, Ted had a plan but the message for the plan was fubar, and had not helped at all. Zero Dawn failed and he had left her a solution as a backup but the message telling her what she needed to do was gone. To make matters worse she might be the last living being on the planet if ZD had failed.

"What is the weather like outside?"

[ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON THE UPPER FLOOR ARE READING 17'C]

Slowly one after the other Nadia put her feet on the cold floor and took a careful step then another. There was a rumble a few feet away three tiles began raising from the floor and in each was a cubby holes.

[HERE ARE YOUR PERSONAL EFFECTS DR. ODINE.]

"I'm not a doctor. I don't know where you got that from."

[YOU WERE GRANTED AN HONORARY DOCTORATE POST-HUMOROUSLY AS REPORTED BY MR. FARO.]

Nadia shook her head focusing on her breathing. She knew rationally that all the stress was going to come crashing down around her but for now she had to get her baring's and figure out her first move. She wasn't sure where she could go now or if there was even anything left that she knew. Nine hundred years was a long time.

[YOU WILL FIND HERE A FOCUS HEADSET AND CLOTHES FOR BOTH AIRED AND COOLER CLIMATE.]

"What no gun or anything to protect my self, or environmental suit?"

[NO WEAPONS WILL BE NEEDED PER INSTRUCTIONS AND THE ENVIRONMENT IS LIVABLE]

She pulled off the medical gown, letting it fall to the ground. Then began to put on the clothes, they were the generic gray shirt and pants with the only color being the red stitching that followed the zipper.

Clipping the Focus to her ear she scrolled through files on the device. There was Ted's message and a map both having a symbol denoting they had been corrupted.

 _What the hell am I doing? What can I do? I don't even know where this Site-B is._

She grabbed the jacket in her right hand and looked at the doors leaving the room. She looked back once at the metal bed and shivered, this place was creeping her out. So on that not she walked to the door. They opened giving the reception room a once over the noted the neon _exit_ virtual images that directed her to the elevator and she pressed the call button. The elevator doors opened and she entered pressing the ground button and she was on her way up. Her breath was coming faster now, she had been staving off everything that she had found out.

She was taken and put to sleep for almost a thousand years. Everyone she knew was dead and dust, there efforts to save the human race failed and rotting like them. Worst of all she was tasked by the man she hated more that any person that ever lived had done all of this. She was feeling ill, and her head was spinning. The reality of the situation was weighing heavy on her, not for the first time she thought that maybe it would be better if she just ended it, but no. She would not do that. Hannah wouldn't want that. It went against everything she believed in. So no taking her own life was not a choice. She was so deep in thought that she never register the tears that began rolling down her face as the image of a smiling Hannah passed through her mind. Only a second later came chime noise and the doors of the elevator opened and Dr. Nadia Odine stepped out into a world she was completely unprepared for.

* * *

 **::AN::**

I had no intention in writing another fic until I finished the first. So before I posted this I decided that I needed to finish the next chapter of my first fic. Well I reading over that and getting ready to send to my beta editor. This story was an idea I had that jumped at me. See I came up with an ending first then I had to figure out how to get to that ending. Horizon had such a great story and a fun game play.

When I started writing this I originally wrote around 10K+ words. I decided to cut this in half so I would update over the course of a few days. This was not edited by anyone but me so I apologies if it is very rough. I concede it is more of a draft than anything else.

...

Please let me know what you think and if I should continue?

 **No flames please constructive criticism.**

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	2. 1:2 B345T

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Please support the official release.

...

HORIZON

Protocol Zer0

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

No beta reader sorry

...

 _Wake up Aloy._

 _"_ No Rost just a little longer…"

 _Aloy you have to wake up._

 _"_ Just let me sleep in… one day…"

 _ALOY WAKE UP!_

My eye shot open frantically looking around. I had dreamed of Rost, it was the day of the proving all over again. He was trying to wake me after I almost died... but the last yell was different somehow.

Shaking my head I looked around, the fire was out and it would be a little longer still before the sun was out. I decided I would at least get the fire going again, I was wide awake and there was no going back to sleep. Only a few hours till sun up.

Begrudgingly I pulled myself from the warm furs and stood, the chill in the air made me shiver the dream was still at the forefront of my mind, the screams of the other braves cut down before there time. I shook my head banishing the unhappy thoughts. Just as I was reaching down to get my bow another scream sounded out. I grabbed my bow and quiver not worrying about the rest of my gear.

I was outside in an instant the cold air was sharper out here. My eyes darted around scanning the area as I looked for the source of the scream. I heard another shout and I activated my Focus not far away but definitely out of sight was a human, and not far from it was a machine. From the Focus it looked a bit larger than a Scraper but not quite Ravager size. It was thinner too but with machines that doesn't really matter.

I took off like an arrow my legs pumping hard the Focus finally gave me a reading and designated the machine as a Sabertooth. That's a new one. I heard another scream and this time it was followed by a roar and the crashing of a heavy machine body. As I came around the corner I saw a female in odd colored gray clothes her she was down on the ground facing away from me but staring right into the eye of the Sabertooth.

It was unlike anything I had seen, sure enough it was larger than a scrapped, it's body however was more slender like a stalker. Its most defining feature was its maw, two large protruding teeth jutted down from the roof of its mouth. It was stalking closer to the girl. It took another step and then its teeth began to glow red, smoke was coming off of them now, no not smoke, steam I realized. Its teeth were heating up and it was getting ready for the killing blow.

"Ha! Snaggle tooth! Over here!" I had to take its focus off of the girl. So I loosed an arrow at the beast nicking the side of its face and just as I had hoped its attention transferred to me. In only 3 strides the beast was one me, I didn't even have time to notch another arrow before I had to tumble away. Its massive claw only a hairs breathe from my right arm.

I was up on one knee immediately pulling two arrow this time from my quiver. I didn't have time for a shot as again the monster was on me. Scrappers unless in pairs would often back off to try and get at you from range, this thing however was all about keeping the fight close and tight. It wasn't giving me much of a chance to get a shot off and stupid me had left my spear back by my camp. Something that I was regretting right now.

I looked over the beast as best I could and noted that its power cell was not on its back, and after dodging the second strike I found it under the thing on its belly. I had to roll my eyes, this was going to be hard. The thought of running crossed my mind but with trying to save the girl that wasn't an option ether. It might double back and finish her off.

The beast gave me a wide birth and I fired the two arrows, one was off only glancing off the beasts armor but the other hit true, taking up the slot where it left eye would have been. It reeled back a metallic paw hand coming up pawing at the left side of its face removing the arrow but it didn't matter the damage was done. It returned to its stalking a counter clockwise circle around me, and quickly pulled another arrow and notched it. But then the thought occurred to me, I was never going to take the beast down with just normal arrows. I needed to get to its power cell under its belly. The thing was fan of pouncing so a crazy idea came over me.

As the Sabertooth started to line up for another pounce I shouldered by bow and pulled another arrow now holding one arrow in each hand. I readied myself for it to make the first move. Ether I kill it or it kills me and then the girl.

"Better to go out fighting I guess."

As if hearing my challenge the beast came at me, and I rushed at it. Both of us starring the other down as it lunged to pounce and I dropped to my knees sliding on the ground under the beast. Just as it began passing overhead I saw my target and my hands came together driving the arrows into its power core from both sides. Sparks and machine blood gushed from the wound as it crashed to the ground behind me. I was up and turned on it in an instant. Sparks were dancing around it underside but it wasn't making any more to get back up.

I looked back up and for her part she looked stunned, she looked from the Sabertooth with wide eyes then to me the surprise expression never leaving her face as I walked over to her helping her up. Then I recognized her this was Nadia Odine, this was an old one. She was alive, she was shaking as she looked back at the dead machine then quickly back at me.

"It can't... Shouldn't, I mean it's... Elisabet is that really you? That thing." The girl was still shaking and she didn't seem to be all there at the moment. I really wasn't sure what to say to her so I said the first thing that came to my mind. I've never been one to dance around things.

"I'm not Elisabet, I guess you can say that I'm her daughter, that was a machine in general there pretty common. That's the first Sabertooth I have ever see thought. I'm Aloy and looking at your cloths I'm going to say that you're Nadia Odine right?" She slowly nodded as she looked me over the sudden realization that things were not as she was use to came crashing down on her and with that her eyes rolled back and passed out.

(ง ´͈౪`͈)ว

I was prepared for some shock from her at learning what had happened to the world, but this was not a great start. In fact this was horrible. I brought her back to camp, I stayed close in case she woke but I needed more wood, lucky when I got back she was still out cold. The first few raise of sunlight began to stream over the mountain and I had been dozing off and on since I came back leaning against a wall watching the fire crackle.

A part of me thought she might sleep for another hundred years and silly as that sounds, I couldn't help but grinned at my own joke. But the curious part of me was excited to speak with her. Nadia started to move and mumble in her sleep but slowly she came around. She sat up placing a hand to her head then letting it fall to her lap. Her eyes scanned around taking everything in before finally landing on me and she gasped. I wasn't sure how to handle this but being upfront seemed like the best idea. I wanted to dispel any idea she had that I was Elisabet right away and get the bad news about Zero Dawn over with.

"Hi," I said waving a hand from across the fire. "Your Nadia Odine right." Nadia's head bobbed up and down as confirmation. "I'm Aloy. I understand you have been _out_ for a while." Again fervent nodding to the affirmative. "Can you speak?"

"Yes." She seemed to swallow and think about her next words. "You look like her. Elisabet I mean, but you said you're her daughter right or did I imagine that?"

"Yeah, it's the best explanation I can give you." I could see the gleam of hope and I really hated to dash it but better to get it over with. "You should know she is gone. She died a long time ago. I'm sorry, I know this might be a shock to you." Her face was crestfallen and she pulled her legs to her chest as she leaned back rocking herself.

"I'm guessing it's not just her is it. There all gone... Aren't they." Again I nodded in the affirmative. "Something went wrong didn't it? I was supposed to be at Zero Dawn but something happened... Ted." Her face went from one of sadness to one of rage in an instant. "That son of bitch! He did this, please tell me he's dead at the very least... if not I would like to meet him… so I can claw his _flipping_ eyes out!"

Wow this girl was mad there was definitely more to this then just hating the man who killed the world. She didn't want to just kill him she wanted to make it hurt. I could relate after what happened at the proving. I had gotten revenge, justice for the lives that Eclipse took. Nadia however would never be able to have hers.

"Yeah there all gone and I'm pretty sure Ted Faro is dead as well. I guess he could be kept alive like you but I have no idea where he would be. Sorry." A calming breath later she was looking in the fire.

"I'm guessing things really didn't go to well after I got put under. When I woke up there was a message from _The_ _S.O.B._ The file was corrupted and recovery was really good. Something about GAIA being compromised and that causing Protocol Zero to kick in and wake me up." I winced a little.

"About that. I'm not really sure what Protocol Zero is GAIA being compromised is an understatement. GAIA is gone along with all the subordinate programs that she controlled." Her face was steeled now so I continued. "Something happened, I'm not sure what but it was a signal that caused GAIA to lose control over the subordinate programs. She self destructed the G-Prime facilities power reactor. She just about brought the entire mountain down. There really isn't much left anyway."

"I...see. I'm sorry but why are you dressed like that?" She said gesturing to me.

She was as direct as me. I was starting to see how others felt when on the receiving end of one of my conversations.

"Well there was a problem long before GAIA blew up the mountain. Sometime after G-Prime was sealed, the Alphas had to stay there, well Ted contacted them and informed them that he didn't want future generations to repeat _our_ mistakes. He purged Apollo, so all the knowledge that should have been passed on to future generations was lost." I knew this was going to be hard for her. It was hard for me but everything that she and other had tried to do to give future generations a chance was screwed over not once but twice by the same man.

"All gone." Then she did one thing that surprised me she laughed, but it was obvious this was not meant to humorous. " _The S.O.B._ managed to screw the world one last time. So the human race was thrown back to rubbing sticks together and worshiping fire."

"The Sun actually." Nadia chuckled at that. "Well the Carja do. The Nora worship the All-Mother."

"If Elisabet died so long ago how are you still here? How long is a long time to you?"

"She died shortly after G-Prime was sealed but there was a problem and she sacrificed herself to save GAIA. She is gone I'm sorry to say, I was coming back from finding her when I happened upon this place and you. As for how I'm her daughter here and now with her hundreds of years dead I think I need to start at the beginning. It's a long story so bare with me." So I began my story. Growing up an outcast, Rost. Finding my Focus, the proving trying to enter the mountain and the adventure that lead me to now. All and all she took it well, or as well as I think anyone could expect her to. We ate a lite meal and that expanded the last of my rations. Now I really had to go hunting.

"I don't know what to do." She said quietly. "The S.O.B. obviously came up with this Protocol Zero before he went and purged Apollo. The message said something about a place called Site-B, I think it was like a backup to G-Prime. A lot of good that does without an AI to run it, not to mention I have no earthly idea where it is."

"It's a nice thought, GAIA seem to have the same idea about me but I would know how to begin to fix her. Pitty you can recover that message or like I did the data at the Faro tower." Nadia gasped.

"That's it. He recorded that message and sent it here, he was in Thebes. His own bunker where he was going to live out his merry flipping life. If the bunker is still there then there is a chance that the message is still in the local database." There was a fire in her eyes not of someone morning but some with a purpose but there was still one unpleasant fact and I really hated to be the bearer of bad news.

"That's all well and good but what about the AI can you just recreate her? She did say that she shouldn't be brought back online till Hades was destroyed."

"There's a backup, or there should be one. Though we have no way of knowing how far removed the back might have been from the final product." Well that was some of the best news I had heard in a long time.

"But where is it? I never ran across anyone talking about a backup or where it might be."

"Zero Dawn, it would be in the Vault at Zero Dawn, the hard backups anyway." That was not good. While Eclipse was fractured, it and the Shadow Carja were still a very real threat.

"About that, Zero Dawn is taken over by some bad people remember."

"I want to do this. I don't know how but... I don't want everything we did to go to waist. I'm a stranger in a strange land and I know nothing about the world now. My world died, I'm just a relic like all of these crumbling buildings. Maybe it's irrational and maybe I'm just trying to hold on to the last piece of what was but I can't help but think things could be a little better. Maybe even cure that Derangement you talked about from the terraforming machines. I don't know." I could see the hope in her eyes. This wasn't part of my plan but to tell the truth I didn't have a plan anymore.

I was just as lost as she was. All my life I had been looking for my mother never thinking about what came next. While I might travel back to the Sacred lands I knew it would never truly be home like it was without Rost and being a member of the Tribe was not going to happen. Not when people fell to their knees to worship you when you just walked into a room. I knew the truth now, I had never really put to much faith the All-Mother to begin with it had mostly been for Rost. Now I had even less faith, they would never cast me out again but at the same time it would have be easier if they did. Now my exile would be self imposed, I would always be Aloy, despite the Nora. I didn't realize how true that statement would be till now and all these thought were weighing heavily on me as much as Nadia's own thoughts weighed on her.

"Well we can just walk into Zero Dawn at the moment that's going to take some doing. Not to mention it's still a four maybe five day trip back. Assuming the snow lets up. Maybe a better idea would be to try and find that message the Faro left you. You said he recorded it at Thebes where is that?"

Nadia thought for a moment then frowned. "I don't know. Not exactly if I had access to a terminal that was on the Faro network I might could look up the location for at least narrow it down. This places terminals were all down hence the data corruption. I don't guess you have run across anything in your travels have you."

Lighting struck as the thought hit me. There might be something that would get me kicked out of the tribe for good.

"What about a terminal in a Cradle?" She looked at me oddly until realization began to dawn on her. "I know where one is and there are a lot of terminals that were for Apollo but they never got used. They looked like they were still working though." She nodded.

"That could work, they were tailored with a GUI that was kid friendly but underneath there just like any other computer and even without Apollo the system should still be there if they online and work... what? You have the Sobeck look."

"What's the Sobeck look?" I asked incredulously. Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward and sly grin spread across her face.

"That's the same look Elisab... your mom use to get when she was planning something that was going to really tick someone off and regardless she didn't care." Well she was right it was going to piss someone off, hopefully being the anointed one would make it okay though. "You really are her daughter." I smiled at that.

"The Cradle facility I'm referring to is in the Sacred Lands, were my tribe is the Nora. It's also considered the most sacred and holy place in the entirety of the sacred lands. Even me being the anointed one might not get them to let us in there." To her credit Nadia didn't seemed phased by this revelation.

"If there as superstitious as you say your pretty much a god made flesh to them. If that doesn't work then...well. I don't know fake it till you make it." She laughed. It was going to be interesting having her traveling with me for the foreseeable future. I was actually happy, this was a new purpose. Sure I had planned to try and bring GAIA back online but I had no direction on how to even begin. But with Nadia and her knowledge of the past we might just have a chance. This chance happening of me finding a girl lost to time might actually be for the best. What were the odds that I had found her, that she was just what I needed at the exact time I needed her. Maybe there was a little something to the Fate and Destiny stuff.

(⁎˃ᆺ˂)

For decades FAS-SITE-RD42 had like much of the old world lay dormant. It had waited for a day that had never come, a mission entrusted to it by its creators never fulfilled. Its original function had been to assist an asset, but in the last days before its creators went silent it had received new orders that superseded all others. It was to wait for a signal, once received it would then carryout its primary objective and all sub objective of its last standing order.

At 1724.047 hours the signal was sent by a mass omnidirectional broadcast. Most machines did not even notice the signal, and even less living beings did.

However 1724.451 hours the signal was received by FAS-SITE-RD42.

No living being had been in FAS-SITE-RD42 for decades so in an effort to be Eco friendly power consumption was kept to a minimal. Lights, air and other systems needed for human life were deemed a none essential function and suspended.

Then at 1725.237 hours a small LED light lit up on a console. The only indicator that the facility might still have any functionality. Then a monitor screen flickered to life for the first time in several hundred years. Though there was no one in the room to see it, no one alive anyway, the system had been waiting for a signal, the call to preform its last standing order, to fulfill its purpose. Lines of information began to scroll across the screen as FAS-B345T began checking that all its faculties were in order.

-BEGIN LINE-

[SYSTEM TEST...OK]

[MEM TEST...OK]

[SELF TEST...OK]

[WAKE COMMAND RECEIVED...]

[SYSTEM IS ONLINE]

[ATTENTION! PRIORITY ONE! PROTOCOL ZERO IN EFFECT!]

[INFRASTRUCTURE CHECK = TRUE]

[G-PRIME COMMUNICATION... FAILED]

[ZD COMMUNICATION... FAILED]

[EXECUTE PRIMARY DIRECTIVE = TRUE]

[VARIABLE ACTIVE = TRUE]

[LOADING SUB DIRECTIVES]

[SD-FIRST: SECURE AND DEFEND SITE-B PERIMETER - USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED]

[SD-SECOND: INSTITUTE BECKETT CONTINGENCY LOCK DOWN OF SITE-B]

[SHOULD SUB-DIRECTIVES NOT BE FULFILLED OR ARE UNABLE TO BE FULFILLED INSTITUTE TERTIARY DIRECTIVES = TRUE]

[TD-FIRST: OVERRIDE SAFETY SYSTEMS OF ALL GAIA FACILITIES REACTORS GLOBALLY]

[TD-SECOND: OVERRIDE SAFETY SYSTEMS OF SITE-B REACTOR]

[TD-THIRD: ANY THIRD PARTIES THAT MAY LEAD TO THE FULFILLMENT OF PROTOCOL ZERO ARE TO BE ELIMINATED]

[SHOULD ALL GOALS OF PRIMARY DIRECTIVE BE MET SYSTEM RETURN TO STANDBY = TRUE]

[SHOULD TD-FIRST AND/OR TD-SECOND DIRECTIVES BE MET SELF TERMINATE = TRUE]

[….]

[BEGINNING ASSETS INVENTORY... STAND BY]

Though no human living had been in the room for hundreds of years lights began to turn on throughout the facility, some blew out after laying dormant for so long but darkness was not a concern to FAS-B345T. There were no humans here requiring light to see. But had there been, they would have seen the lights of a massive underground hanger lit up. There Eco _friendly_ LEDs illuminating the various unmanned _peacekeeping_ robots for several football field lengths into the distance. It was only seconds later that the various optics of the robots turning red, shining like a fires of hell. All of them proudly sporting the corporate logo of Faro Automated Solutions.

[LOADING PRIMARY DIRECTIVE...]

[TARGET ROUGE ASSET = NADIA ODINE]

[OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE TARGET WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE]

[…]

[TARGET LOCATION UNKNOWN / USING LAST KNOWN LOCATION OF TARGET = PEARL LABS PROVO UTAH]

[BRINGING ASSETS ONLINE]

[SCRAMBLING ASSET = CHIMERA]

[BEGINNING RECONNAISSANCE OPERATIONS...]

[...]

[HAVE A NICE DAY ^w^]

-END OF LINE-

* * *

 **::AN::**

Ill be the first to admit I spend a good portion of the last part just working on how FAS-B345T (BEAST) spoke/was presented when reading. I wanted him to be ominous and not really seem like a AI we have seen before. HADES was just straight up nut job crazy. He had a I was made to be the destroyer so that what I'm going to do!

Yes he used the FARO _peacekeeper_ robots but to him that were just a blunt instrument a means to an end. B345T on the other hand is tactical, pragmatic, and feels no emotion. B345T's only goals or this left behind to it and it will strive to achieve them at any cost.

 **Parings:** really I have no plans to make this a love story there might be some love interest later but Nadia and Aloy are not going to be shacking up. Nadia still has a lot to work through.

Any way there you have it. I hope you enjoyed please let me know what you think about the direction the story is taking.

PLEASE REVIEW

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	3. 1:3 Routine

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Please support the official release.

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

Edited by NONE FOR NOW.

Routines.

We all have them even if we don't realize it. For instance, the way we wake up in the morning. Some people might wake but snuggle up in bed for a while before they have to be up. Some might wait till the last minute, waking up in a frantic rush to get ready for the day. The list goes on and on.

The option that Menially preferred was to wake just before sunrise. Today for her was no different. At ten minutes before sunrise the lights in her bedroom began to illuminate at a very low setting. Then after the allotted time the curtains of the window would open exposing the room to the outside world. However, if one were to look outside they would not see the lush green of trees, nor the rugged landscape that was so common to this new era.

Instead they would see water. Crystal clear blue water that went as far into the distance as the eye could see till it tapered off to darkness. It made for quite the mosaic as the first rays of sunlight hit the water's surface high above.

It would be at this time that Menially would start to rouse herself from her sleep. The large king size bed was choice rather than a necessity. She found that it very comfortable and she enjoyed having the space to roll around in it.

Many time she would fantasize about lounging around and not get up at all, however that was not something she could do. She had a routine to maintain, there was work today. She would indulge in that practice on the sixth day of the week, Iceday. Today was Watersday so it was not to be.

She had decided that the old-world use of a seven-day week and a 24-hour day was inefficient so she had developed her own timetable to rule her life. A six day we at 25 hours per day worked best for her. This meant that one week for her were 150 hours long rather than the old-world standard of 168 hours. The concept of years had also been revamped to reflect the days and weeks. Years were made up of 50 weeks rather than 52, the old-world standard, giving the year only 300 days.

The concept of time based on the celestial bodies was an antiquated notion when living in the facility. Sure, you could see the sun thought the water or cameras of the outside but what did it matter. The facility had not been made to run this way it was just how she liked it.

To Menially this was more efficient. It worked better for an environment that was far removed from the outside world. Even farther removed from the old world. As for why she decided to name the names of the week using base elemental concepts, Firesday Earthsday Watersday Windsday Iceday - Lightningday, there was no logical or scientific reason for the names. She just thought it was cute.

Today the light shinned in the room Menially as woke. She took a few moments to enjoy the warmth of the bed before chiding herself and stretching.

First task of the day was to look over the nightly reports. Without a word spoken she reached over to the night stand and retrieved both her glasses and tablet. Without a word, she began looking over the reports of various projects that she had working. Each were chronologically spaced out in such a way that she could oversee all of them with only the minimal oversight. Leaving the minor tasks to the automated assistant robots that could handle the menial tasks, while she was free to work on more important aspects of her various projects.

Menially took her time looking over the reports with only a few mental notes for later. Nothing that couldn't wait till after breakfast. About 30 minutes later the daily reports were reviewed, updated procedures sent.

She pulled the covers off and reluctantly climbed out of bed. Since she was young she had always found that she did not like to be hampered by clothes when she was asleep. So, she had tent to sleep nude, she was not a nudist or anything like that, she just hated to be restricted when she slept.

She walked to the window of her room beneath the waves and smiled out to the abyss. Enjoying the site of the color mosaic created by the sun.

Her sight adjusted from the exterior and to her own reflection in the glass. She noted that her hair was frizzy from her tossing in her sleep. She took great strides to take care of the strawberry blonde locks. When first the decided to grow it out he didn't know what to do with it. She had kept it short for so long it was strange to have it growing past her shoulders. Then past her mid back, her waist and finally resting just at her knees. She decided that it was good there.

While she didn't not work out to the point of gaining a _six-pack_ sit was obvious that she took good strides to make sure she was fit. Though Menially was only fifteen it was a source of pride to her to keep in shape. IT was never too early to prepare for the future.

Realistically letting her hair get so long was not a logical thing to do. It would take up more of her day but she decided that it was just something she liked and logic could be omitted in this decision. Being only five foot six it also made her look taller. So she turned to the other side of the room and proceeded to the vanity to begin her work of brushing out the tangled. This would of course need to be done again after her morning bath.

Like clockwork the door to the room opened and in walked a tall male with black hair, wearing a very none descript gray uniform. Ever step he made was gaged to an even stride stopping four feet from where Menially now sat. She didn't even flinch or try to cover herself from his view. She was very comfortable in her skin and its wasn't as if anyone cared but her.

"Lady Menially, good morning. Will my lady be eating breakfast before or after her morning run?" These were the same words ask of her every morning. It was not a break from routine, it was merely a shuffling of allotted time. One could come before the other. They were interchangeable.

"Breakfast. What's on the menu today?" She already knew the answer but for social interaction sake she asks anyway.

"Today is a selection of grapefruit, Greek yogurt and Eggs benedict." He answered in a monotone voice.

"That sounds great. In the atrium if you would." It was a statement.

"Very well Lady Menially. Do you require assistance with your grooming?"

"No."

"Then I shall see to breakfast." With one swift movement, he turned about face and left the room.

After finishing her hair Menially walked to her bath room. She had taken personal interest in the reconstruction of the room next to hers, turning it into a large bathing area. Walking to the chair in the room she retrieved the robe that was laid out last night for her. Slipping it on her then made her way out of the room. Her bare feet made soft noises as she padded down the hall.

To most people, it would seem eerily quiet, to Menially it was just another day. As she made it to the end of the hall she stepped into the waiting elevator. The doors closing, she was carried up four floors to the atrium level.

Upon exiting the elevator, she entered into a large room that was several stories tall. There were several levels each at one time used for the staff offices. The bottom level where she now was once a cafeteria. The square and round tables that once littered the room were now stored else were, there was no need to feed hundreds of people anymore. Now there was only one table in the entire room. Menially had always loved the view from the atrium. Just like her room she could see out to the underwater world outside. But it was on such a grander scale. While the inner portion of the ground floor was filled with various stalls once used for het cafeteria and the upper the various administration offices and rooms the opposite side was glass.

Hundreds of hexagon panes of glass made up the opposite wall. It was shaped like a bee hive with the various panes just having enough space between each so you could see the hexagon shape of it. Outside just like before was an endless expanse of water tapering off into darkness farther out. The view was much better here as well. The atrium was closer to the surface and outside the great glass window was a large artificial sea floor.

This artificial floor outside also ran the floor length of the room. The _sea floor_ was teaming with life. A small coral reef ran most of its length. Fish of dozens of verities and the various aquatic animals that made the reef there home swam around darting here and there.

Being in the atrium was like getting to look at the world's largest aquarium. The sunlight was brighter here being closer to the surface, so there was no need for artificial lighting during the day, there was lighting in the room if it was an overcast day and for night time. It had originally been made to seat 181 people if the capacity limit sign was anything to go by.

Now however it only sat one.

A single table was set in the room. A single chair waiting on the single person to sit and enjoy the view and the food freshly prepared.

The same dark haired man pulled out the chair for Menially as she approached.

Sitting down Menially didn't even acknowledge him as she looked over the meal. Setting on the table beside the meal were a pair of glasses, black rims in a rectangle lenses. After putting the glasses on Menially blinked her right eye, then her left finally blinking both eyes together three times.

After a moment, she smiled and began to eat. Her gaze became unfocused throughout the meal, her eyes darting here and there from time to time. Blinking at rapid intervals as she ate. No words were exchanged between her and the dark-haired man.

After her meals, the removed the glasses and looked out to the world outside of the glass smiling to herself. She loved the atrium, truth be told it was her favorite place. She didn't want to eat every meal here, it would make the mundane so she abstained and ate at other places as well.

The meal over Menially put her glasses back on and stood. She took one last look out at the expense and smiled as she eyed a few small fish darts in and around the coral. Then she turned and made her way to the elevator. The dark-haired man that had not spoken since she came to her room earlier began cleaning up the table as she left.

The elevator door was open and waiting and she stepped in, the door closing on their own and carrying her down this time. When the elevator doors opened Menially stepped off to a long hall way. The walls had windows throughout however these did not have water behind them but rather exercise equipment. Each room seemed to be dedicated to one or two typed of equipment. Treadmills and bikes, machine weights and free weights on an on.

The lights of the room flickered to life as she walked down the hall finally tuning in the changing room. Just like her robe there was set of clothes set out for her on top of a towel.

The top today was the same as yesterday, only the color changed. Today her clothes were the color of the day of the week. Today her clothes were blue. The top was a mock neck top with a midriff, a pair of compression shorts that didn't even make it halfway to her knees. She pulled her hair up as best she could be holding it up with a hair tie and a clip. Now the thick locks only made it to her mid back.

She was disrobed and ready for a work out in minuets first making her way to a room with yoga mats and going through a warm up. After a fifteen-minute workout, it was on to the treadmill. Forty-five minutes later she changed to upper body. Her last exercise was abs followed by a few minutes of stretches for a cool down.

Then it was back on the elevator and to her room. She didn't bother retrieving her robe, there was no need it would be taken care of.

Once to her room she removed her excursive clothes tossing them into the hamper. Her glasses were tossed on the freshly made bed landing on top of the clothes that had been laid out for her. \

Entering the bathroom, she made her way to the far wall of the room where a shower was set up, she first washed herself cleaning off the seat from her work out then it was time for the bath.

It was better to first clean the body and then indulge in the bath to relax her muscles. The Bath was already heated and ready for her when she entered it. The _bath tub_ was more of a small swimming pool, or a large hot tub. Deep enough that if sitting he would be just above the water line. Another part of the bath was a little deeper but nothing was more than meter and a half deep.

As good as it felt to relax she had work to do. Two of her projects were baring fruit the others were some weeks off before they would show any signs of success or failure. Exiting the bath she toweled off taking time to work the water from her hair, setting down. She retreated a brush from the table and began working to brush out her hair, finally began drying it, one of the more time consuming things about having so much hair. Then after several minutes she was tossing her used towels into the hamper with her gym clothes.

She exited the bathroom to her bed room. The bed had been made, and laying on it was her clothes for the day. To anyone she would come off very professional in actions, however in dress she preferred more of an everyday look.

Under garments were plane white garments. No one would see her undergarments so why care what color they were. Her top plain green v-neck, green being her favorite color. It matched her eyes. Followed by a fitting pair off cargo shorts cut just above the knee, ankle high socks and a pair of sneakers later she was almost ready.

She walked over to stand in front of her vanity. Taking a ribbon and tying it a few inches from the end of her hair so it would be a bit more controlled. Task complete she walked back the bed picking up the last garment and her glasses which she put on first. The finishing touch to complete her daily dress was her a white lab coat. It made her feel more professional and her under clothe gave her the laid-back look of a casual boss.

Her eyes fluttered, the right eye a few times then the left.

"Well this is interesting." She said to no one with grin. "Oh, this is good." She was off at a jog down the hall and to the elevator.

"MB change in plans. Clear my schedule for the rest of the day. Prioritize critical projects in a task list. I'm heading to Central make sure the different division heads are updated of the revised time tables." There was no need really to have them updated they had heard everything that was just said.

This time the elevator ride was longer this time and it took her down farther than any previous trips. Finally stopping Menially exited at a jog down the hall to a large double door.

Upon entering the light of the room spring to life. The room was actual like a theater but with desks and various computers about the room. At the very top was a single desk and when sitting behind it a person could see over the entire room. Large screens popped up in front of the room displaying weather, various readouts of the facility from power consumption, air filtration, the temperature of the various labs. Hydroponics, bio labs, compute labs and their various read outs. The last to illuminate was a large map.

As Menially made her way to the top desk and unofficial captain's chair she rolled her eyes. As she walked up the stairs she clapped her hands together.

"People come on what did I say? I'm on my way to Central is cue for everyone to get off their butts we have something interesting happening today!" The room suddenly started to come alive as holograms started to flicker to life around the room. The digital 3D models began to power on around the various tasker robots around the room. Giving there metallic frames the holographic image of a dark-haired male dressed in plane gray clothes.

"No time to dowel. I want to know the origin of that broadcast, and start decoding it as soon as possible. Give me a time frame!" The dark-haired hologram robots began working at their various terminal as Menially reached the top of the control room siting down in the captain's chair.

"Were do we stand on localizing where that signal originated from?"

"Satellite telemetry along with pings off the Focus network the signals origin is being narrowed down but it's only a general vicinity." Said one of the robots in it calm mono tone.

"Show me, put it on the big board." Seconds later the center screen changed showing a map various circles appeared on the screen. Two circles appeared on the screen. "Damn not enough points to triangulate. I thought we had satellite telemetry?"

"The signal was not strong enough to get an accurate reading. The probability is that it was an echo making it useless." Menially bit her lip.

"Crap on a cracker. Do we have it decoded yet?"

"Partial, it was using a deep AES32768 encryption, we do not presently have any know cyphers that are working to decrypt it. The header was not encrypted and only had minimal data that is usable.

"Show me. Send it to my L.E.N.S." Menially blinked a few times, her eyes scrolled back and forth. The inner lens of her glasses blinked to life. The text from the signals broadcast appeared in her sight. The L.E.N.S. acted much like a Focus, it could process data faster and allowed for faster and easier control of the facility's systems, and the service robots.

[PROTOCOL ZERO]

"That's it! Two words?" She leaned back in her chair thinking. Her left eye then the right blinked dismissing the text and bringing back into focus the usual readouts of the facility. The header of the message had been in an encryption that was easily broken but the rest of the broadcast would take time. Even with the compute network she had it would take six weeks to crack. It was different form the encryption used on the Faro robots and that had taken the facility 33 years to crack. In the long run six weeks was nothing but this was making her impatient.

"My Lady we have found a two Focuses in the vicinity."

"Really! Put them on the big board!" Two separate feeds appeared on the screen mostly looking around at the same view of the users Focus. The first of the two live images were just the back of a Strider robot, the user was obviously riding it, which was odd. From what she knew the machines didn't usually didn't obey humans. The second Focus showed the back of the first users head, a main of red hair fixed in various braids and beads hanging lose in it.

Over the next few hours the red head was talking about the world like her riding partner had no knowledge of the world at large. Strange, not that Menially was one to talk she had never been outside of the facility and that was just find to her. The outside world held nothing for her.

There was a bit of irony in the fact that the facility had been created to help further the human race and the strides in bio engineering and science would have revolutionized the human condition a millennium ago.

All the progress in so many fields that could have helped humanity and not one person had ever benefited from it.

Too Menially they were all just find projects and questions to figure out. Then they were filed away until they were needed or they could be improved upon.

Hours later there was still no useful information. There had been some glimpses of the red heads face but nothing that helped to figure out anything else. MB had come a few moments ago asking about lunch. She was too intrigued by this development to leave so she told the dark-haired robot to bring lunch to Central.

It was Turkey on Rye Bread with honey mustard and a cup of miso soup.

In a way, she felt it was almost sad that she put everything on hold for this but this was out of the ordinary. Sure, there were Focuses here and there that came online periodically but most of them were just people playing with something they knew nothing about.

These two people however were different. The red head look like one of the tribes in the western part of the continent.

Finally, two began to talk about taking a break to eat and rest up for a while. After finding a good place to stop the two dismounted and the video feed finally changed prospective. The two dismounted the Strider revealing their faces. It was sad this was so exciting to Menially but it wasn't everyday there was an encrypted signal sent out, but less one that was so encrypted so heavily.

After a second and the face appeared Menially was stunned and scooted to eh edge of her seat. She knew one of the people, well not really, she knew of her from her profile. She had been working on project DeepDive, but that was impossible. Records indicated she died before the world went dark.

"Bring up Nadia Odine's corporate profile." The large screen to the right of the video feeds changed to a personal profile of Nadia. Yes, the profile image and this woman were to close, she looked a few years younger than the profile picture, facial recognition soon confirmed the fact.

"Would you like us to also bring up the profile of the other female My Lady." Asked one of the dark-haired robots. Menially cut her eyes to the robot below her platform.

"She had a profile? Yes, bring it up."

Instantly to the left of the video feeds another corporate profile appeared. The face of an older red head graced the screen and Menially began to scan over the profile and her eyes widened.

"Elisabet Sobeck, how? There's no way. I mean the records we retrieved said she left that G-Prime place before it was lock down. There is no way she could still be live!" As if to prove her wrong the facial recognition software verified the identity of the red head. Still Nadia kept calling her Aloy not Elisabet. The though crossed her mind that she might be a daughter, but the odds of having the exact facial feature that could fool the recognition software was not an option. The genetic variation of the mother and father would see to that.

Quickly running some numbers in her head the odds were too high, a few other options were on the list but they too had to high of a probability to be feasible.

"A clone, that's the only explanation, no way could a child have that close of a resemblance to have an ID profiler her as the real thing." She said to herself. Menially grinned. It seemed canceling the rest of her day was a good choice. This proved to be most interesting thing to happen since finding a cure for cancer cells.

"I want them monitored at all times. Record everything, and send me updates hourly. If there is anything major to happen notify me immodestly. Day or night." A large smile spread across her face. "This is going to be fun."

She would check in on the progress of the two and just observe for now. This was interesting. As much as she would have loved to her could not abandoned her current projects but she would prioritize those that needed her imitate attention. Her top priority was finding out everything about the two females on the screens.

≧(´▽｀)≦

Having a traveling companion was interesting. Nadia could be very chatty once you got her started. She seemed to have no end of stories about the old world but as they went on I realized that there were only about four to five central characters. The most notable of them being Nadia, her mother, Hannah her life mate and later Dr. Sobeck.

I found myself wanting to know more, not just for the knowledge of the old world but about my new traveling companion as well. When talking about her younger life it was just Nadia and her mother. Nadia was very smart even as a child and her mother tried to foster her question for knowledge. However, her mother was the only person she interacted with. She made it a point in her stories to emphasize how much didn't interact with other people outside her core group.

Unless that is, she had a use for the person.

I had no delusions that in a why she was using me, but at the same time I was using her too. She had a skill set that was nonexistent, and might be the only real chance of saving GAIA. The situation was beneficial for both of us and hopefully in the long run forever one.

Right now, we were having a lull in conversation. When Nadia wasn't talking, she was looking around at the world. Granted they had forests covered in snow in the old world and Nadia played it off as just getting to see and experience a world she thought she would never see again I knew there was more to it. Nadia didn't say it but with everything that happened to her in her finally days before her long sleep and the attack by the Sabretooth just after waking up was taking a toll on her.

Last night as we were betting down it all really started to hit her. She tried to be strong and project an outward air of confidence but it was unrealistic for any human being to just be okay with what happened if they found themselves in her place.

She had incoherently babbled in her crying last night, apologizing to people long dead. First her mother for failing her in some way, then Dr. Sobeck for not being there to help her with Zero Dawn and finally Hannah her life mate.

As much as Rost had prepared me for life to survive and to be self-sufficient, he was not the most comforting type in many ways. Rost was more pragmatic. I fall and scrap my knee Rost did not kneel and tall me _it would be okay, that I need to turn that frown upside down_. Instead he would say _the first thing you need to do is clean the wound. Then treat it for infection, if it gets infected it will make you weak and if your weak it's just a matter of time till your dead._

I said all that to say this. I had no idea how to comfort anyone. Last night was bad, tonight less so. During our good-natured conversation, it had turned to just a simple day in Nadia's life but the story had turned from a funny story about her, Hannah, Dr. Sobeck, and her mother into her breaking down. As the story started the four of them had been playing a game called putt-putt golf. The goal of the game was to get a small ball in a hole some distance away.

Nadia had only been seventeen at the time but she was already well known in her field and had become friends with Dr. Sobeck. The reason for the game was so Nadia got out of the lab and would interact with people.

Her mother had found at an early age that Nadia was smart, very smart just like Elisabet Sobeck. However, unlike Elisabet she didn't feel the need to interact with people. She was alienated as child and had more in common with adults then with children her own age. She at the age of seven rationalized that it was inefficient to have dealings with most people.

That had changed when she met Hannah. The girl was kind and kept trying to get thought to Nadia. Hannah invited Nadia over to her home for sleepovers, to parks, movies and more. Hannah would even sit quietly during Nadia's rants about science and technology and why everyone else was wrong. Eventually over years Hannah had worn down Nadia's aversion to people and had helped her to be more social.

The story had been nice, and easy going. It was also nice to have a story that involved Elisabet and see her doing something else other than science. It was obvious why Nadia had included Elisabet in her life, the two were in a why cut from the same boar skin. Hannah had _demanded_ Nadia go to the play the game with her. At work Nadia had mentioned to Elisabet that she was going to play putt-putt, much to her chagrin. Off handedly Nadia had asked Elisabet to join them, something that she did not thing the old scientist would do. But to Nadia's surprise she did.

While both Nadia and Elisabet might have been the two of the greatest minds in the world in their respective fields. When it came to putt-putt golf they both paled in comparison to Hannah. Nadia could not understand how she did it. The game relied on having the slowest score. The score determined by how many springs with a stick you took to get the ball in the hole. The game must have been one of the most challenging sports of the old world and Hannah was a master of it.

There were 18 holes in all, meaning the least amount of points one could have was 18, assuming you could get the ball in the hole with only one swing. By the ninth hole both Nadia and Elisabet had a score over twenty-five points. Hannah had a score of eleven.

Nadia turned from thinking this game was dumb and a waste of time to taking it as a personal affront to her intelligence. This moment had been a turning point for Nadia. Nadia could not understand how she was so bad at the game to her it was math, geometry. She should be able to figure out a way to logically be better at the game and could not understand why she played so poorly. She was acting like a child, and it was Hannah that had reeled her in.

She had told Nadia that you can't always explain everything with science. True the game could be explained with math but the real question Hannah had asked Nadia was why do you need too? It was a game, it was meant to be fun, there was no reason to over think it just go with the flow. Stop trying to scientifically, math mathematically explains everything. Just have some fun and stop over thinking it.

Elizabet's excuse was she just sucked at the game. She wanted to come because it was something that she and her mother use to do. She still wasn't good at the game then but she enjoyed it. She also said she found a kind dark humor in watching Nadia in situations like this. She also found humor in watching Nadia eat because the younger girl would eat items in the order of smallest item to largest.

When she was explaining all of this I did my best not to but I to found her odd eating habit funny. Nadia had just rolled her eyes and muttered something about _the evil redhead gene that was so prominent in the Sobeck women._ We both had a good laugh at her joke.

But the reminiscing of a happy time in her life turned her mind to what and who she had lost. The tears started flowing and the laughing and slowly morphed in to sobs. So, like now I did the only thing I could and put my hand on her shoulder and let the tears flow and sobs spill out.

I couldn't say anything and there was nothing to say. This was something that she was having to work through, all I could do was be there for her. Would I have liked to tell her it would be okay, sure? Who wouldn't feel bad for someone that had lost everything and everyone they love. But I couldn't, all I could do was let her cry on my shoulder and be there.

Eventually she tired herself out. The rest of her story could hopefully be finished later. It was nice hearing about Elisabet outside of the bleak recordings I had of her so far. I lay Nadia down on the bed roll for the night hoping she would sleep the whole night this time.

We had to share the one bed roll, I hadn't planned on having a traveling companion. Once we got back to Meridian I would pick up another one for the trip to the Sacred Lands. At least it was warmer with two people. I gathered some more wood for the fire before I too decided to bed down.

At the rate, we were going we might be in Meridian sooner than I thought. Maybe three more days if the weather cooperated and the snow didn't start up again. I had been initially worried about Nadia's traveling attire. It seemed so thin and light but she assured me she was plenty warm and comfortable. It didn't have and padding so it was obvious it was made to fight weather, not machines.

I didn't foresee Nadia throwing down with a Thunderjaw anytime soon but we would have to do something about that when we reached Meridian. Maybe just keep what she had with a few modifications.

I did have one worry that was in the back of my mind and that was the Nora. When I had entered the mountain, and came back the same people that shunned me all my life had suddenly thought I was a god. Bowing like I was there just for them a sign from there _goddess_. But I knew I was far from it. The Nora told their children that I was daughter of the Goddess and the Metal Devil. I never believed that it could be true, come on be being the product of a machine.

But they weren't that far from the truth. I wasn't carried by a human mother, but a machine and in a many ways GAIA the AI was the new goddess of the planet that game me life. So, I guess from a certain point of view they weren't wrong.

I wasn't so sure what would happen when I got back there with Nadia, an Old One, and we entered the most holy place in the Sacred Lands. Part of me wanted to tell them the truth, but I doubted that most would believe me and who was I to destroy everything they believed in. Maybe if they were burring people alive like the previous Sun King yeah sure but the Nora for the most part were not overly violent people.

I threw another log on the fire before crawling under the furs next to my traveling companion. I looked up at the clear night sky and the full moon. Earlier I caught Nadia look up at the moon. When I asked her, what was so interesting she told me ' _It's the same. The moon. The stars are the only witnesses of our existence.'_

I think she took solace in the fact that at least one thing was the same. The moon and stars were the same one's from her time. She was a strong woman, I could tell that from short amount of time we had been together. She would make it through this and I had hope that we could succeed.

Even so I still have this nagging feeling that a storm was coming, that Nadia was only one part of something bigger then even GAIA and it was only a matter of time before the other shoe fell.

｡：ﾟ(｡ﾉω＼｡)ﾟ･｡

The world was a far different place then FAS-B345T had on record from previous operations. From high above the earth the imagery was filled with more forest than before. There seemed to be less civilized structures then previous operations and virtually no technological communications signals. There weren't hardly even any electrical signals at all.

There were still several satellites that it could be used to triangulate positions of assets, and pass along operations data but that was only after a target was positively identified and the situation was assisted. There were no satellites capable of spotting a target so a visual ID was need. Hence why FA134-CHIMERA was scrambled.

The CHIMERA series was similar in many ways to what was once known as a U.A.V. (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The most famous of them being the Predator series from the early 2010 era.

The sensor package on the CHIMERA allowed it to positively identify any target that was visible to in a mile radius. The infrared system allowed it to scan for possible targets within a 30 miles' radius. It could further narrow down its targets in groups by biometric data. Visuals, speech patterns, heart rhythms, even mannerisms.

In some operations collateral damage was to be kept to a minimum so being exact in its operations was a necessity. Even so CHIMERA's could be used to deliver large payloads that could level a building or more subtle payloads to take out only one living target. In the latter, however the margin for error was larger.

FAS-B345T however had armed the CHIMERA assets with mid-range Class A2 concussive payloads suited to level a small three-bedroom house. The rezoning was that was the CHIMERA assets would need to be in the air for a while if their current rouge assets was not found quickly. The search would start at the last know suitable location and spread out from there. Four CHIMERA's in all would work in tandem to search and pass along all relative data to FAS-B345T for assessment and further orders.

The CHIMERA's were not like FAS-B345T. They did not plan or think, they were soldiers that took orders and proceeded with objectives within their limited operations parameters. There's was not to question why, there's was but to do or die. It was FAS-B345T that made the tactical planning and order executions of strategies to carry out its orders.

Now the four CHIMERAS' and finally reached their destination. It was time to report in to the Operations Control Director FAS-B345T.

-BEGIN LINE-

[COMMUNICATIONS FROM CHIMERA ASSETS]

[AREA OF OPERATIONS REACHED = YES]

[BEGIN RECONNOCENCE OPERATIONS IN TANDEM WITH LOCAL UNITS = YES]

[COORDINATING SEARCH WITH LOCAL UNITS = YES]

[POLLING LOCAL ASSETS… WAIT]

[AF134 - CHIMERA = MASTER]

[AF135 - CHIMERA = SLAVE]

[AF136 - CHIMERA = SLAVE]

[AF137 - CHIMERA = SLAVE]

[COMMUNICATIONS LINK OF UNITS ESTABLISHED]

[COMMENCE GRID SEARCH AND WAIT FOR FURTHER ORDERS]

[IF ROUGE ASSET IS LOCATED MAINTAIN COVERT VISUAL RANGE UNTIL FURTHER ORDERS RECIVED]

[NEXT SCHEDULED UPDATE IN 2.5HRS]

[BEGINNING OPERATIONS]

[HAVE A NICE DAY ^w^]

-END OF LINE-

(。´д｀。)

 **Next Time…**

"These are my lands-my home! If you want to come here, you're going to stay here forever! I'll bury you here!"

"Damn Aloy. Tell me how you really feel!"

.

* * *

 **::AN::**

Hello readers, I hope you enjoyed. I have the next chapter also most done and we'll be getting to Meridian. I cannot see drawing this out unneeded. How are you liking the development of the characters and what do you think of having Aloy in first person and everything else in 3rd person?

Please let me know what you think.

I would love to hear from you, constructive criticism please no flaming that's not helpful.

I

I

I

V


	4. 1:4 Learning

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Please support the official release.

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

Edited by NONE FOR NOW.

The next morning I was surprised to find that Nadia was already awake. Not only that she had a fire started and was getting breakfast ready.

"Ha you." She chimed. "Sorry I hope I didn't keep you up to late last night."

I stood and stretched. Nadia was standing ready with a skewer of rabbit. I took the offered rabbit. She did well, it was a little over cooked but for only a few days of cook by open flame she was doing well.

"Is it edible? I was just afraid I might have under cooked it but I think I ended up over cooking it." She said sheepishly.

"A little over cooked. Not bad though. You're really picking things up fast. I'm a little surprised, no offence." Nadia laughed, a real laugh. It was nice to see her smile and it gave me hope that she was making progress working through everything. She turned back to the fire and took the other skewer off. Blowing it to cool it off.

"No offence taken. If it's something I want to learn then I usually pick it up pretty fast. I have good memory. But to my own detriment however if I'm not interested in a subject I just don't apply myself." She took bit from her rabbit, forgoing etiquette she continued speaking as she ate. "Cooking by open fire seems like something that I should really know. Before—I never would have even thought about learning to make do in the wilderness. It just wasn't important. Sure, there were people that like to go camping, but it wasn't a necessity, it was a hobby. At any rate, even if we do bring GAIA back online the world isn't going to change overnight. I should probably learn a little more about the machines and the world at large. I don't intend to fight them like you did that Sabertooth, and I doubt Krav Maga is really going to do much to a machine." She chuckled.

"What's Krav Maga?" I asked.

"It's a martial art. A type of hand to hand combat. My mother wanted me to join a sports team when I was in school, she said it would make me a more rounded person. Truth was I didn't care for most people, I didn't like the idea. To me it was a waste of time and I refused to join any teams. So, we compromised. I would take martial arts a hand to hand fighting style of my choosing. Krav Maga was the most useful of the martial art. Krav Maga has a philosophy emphasizing aggression, and simultaneous defensive and offensive maneuvers. It barrows from other styles of fighting and was developed sole for self-defense and stopping an appoint."

The two of us began packing up as and prepared to leave, we didn't have much to pack and it wasn't long until we on our way. Thankfully the snowing had stopped. There was still a good bit on the ground but not enough to slow us down. The was Nadia explained it, Krav Maga seemed to be a way of fighting that was aggressive and if used properly it could incapacitate your opponent _permanently_.

"Against a machine hand to hand it isn't going to be very useful. That's why I carry the spear if I have to get up close. The Sabertooth was an exception, however, this brings up a good point. Your kind of useless in a fight." Nadia couldn't see the grin on my face but she no doubt felt the chuckle in my body.

"Damn Aloy. Tell me how you really feel!" She called back in a good-natured tone.

"Fighting machines wasn't really a priority for you. Survival training wasn't really something you needed to know. But this martial art is still useful if your good at it." Rost always told me that if you didn't use it, _it_ being a skill, you would lose it. That was a sound lessen and was applicable to any skill.

"Maybe…" Nadia sounded a little put out by the direction the conversation was going. I hoped that it was not the lead in to another break down. I decided to change the direction of the topic to something more positive.

"You know it wouldn't hurt to learn how to use a bow and I wouldn't mind learning some of your Krav Maga. Like a trade of skills. In the long run, it could help both of us. After all we have a lot to do if we're going to save GAIA."

" _If._ " She said. "If we can save GAIA. I don't want to get your hopes up Aloy. But from the message I got from Ted and what you have told me so much time has passed that it might not be possible. Just don't get your hopes up. But—learning to use a bow would defiantly be useful. Have to kill to eat after all. As for teaching you what I know of Krav Maga you didn't even have to ask. If it wasn't for you Aloy… I would already be dead."

The conversation was light hearted from there. Mostly it was her asking the odd question here and there about the environment or about a machine we saw in the distance. She was very inquisitive and seemed to be eating up tidbit of information I could think of. For the rest of the day our talks were more upbeat.

We stopped earlier than the day before so that we could get in a little bow practice. The thing about learning of about a bow is shooting is not the first thing you learn about it. The first thing you need to know is how a bow works. There is more to it then apply arrow to string point and shoot. First was learning about a bow and how to maintain it. After all, if the bowstring snaps what are you going to do? How to hold the bow properly, how to set the arrow for a shot.

After going through the basics and letting Nadia get a feel for it we tried a few practice shots. As we expected it wasn't great. Nadia kept pulling to the right more then she should be setting her arrows to miss the mark. It was a work in progress. I was pleased that she could actually notch the arrow at full draw.

After that we moved on to her explaining more about her martial arts. We walked through a few motions and I could immediately see how effective it could be at close range against an attacker. It was mostly a slow walk through of some of the basics. She did admit to some of the maneuvers being a little fuzzy and it took her a moment to really get her flow for them.

During our spar, I learned yet another fact about Nadia, for someone as small, she was surprisingly strong. I think she could even over power me if she wanted. I relieved now why she didn't have any problem notching an arrow and holding it.

If she was to survive her physical strength was an excellent quality to have. She just needed to work on putting it to good use.

ヽ( ･∀･)ﾉ

-BEGIN LINE-

[REPORT RECEIVED FROM CHIMERA ASSETS]

[RECONNOCENSE OPERATION]

[UPDATE #048]

[TARGET LOCATION = UNKNOWN]

[PREVIOUS ORDERS STAND CONTENUE GRID SEARCH OF SECTORS #22 TO #30]

[NEXT SCHEDULED UPDATE IN 9.5HRS]

[HAVE A NICE DAY ^w^]

-END OF LINE-

( ^w^ )

Four days. For the last four days Aloy and Nadia had been monitored and there every move recorded, not that they knew this of course. Through the laughs and tears the drama that was their life played out before Menially. It wasn't anything exceptional, but it was enlightening to watch the two travelers talk about their lives and the world outside. Watching as Nadia struggles to learn the new skills she needed to survive in the world she was now living.

She found it surprising that Nadia knew any kind of self-defense. It was further surprising to see her use it efficiently against an appoint. After that the two fell into a routine, they started the day earlier and stopped sooner so that they had time to practice before preparing the nightly meal. This was the end of the fourth day for the party on their travel back to civilization or what amounted to it now.

Menially had taken to viewing the logs of the day and watching them as they practiced. Nadia intrigued her, she had not expected her to be so adaptable. Maybe if the new skills were in the realm of computer science or even some fields of biology but not survival in the wilderness. It was obvious she would not be going it on her own any time soon, but she was making an earnest effort to learn.

Menially had just arrived in Central Control for the afternoon rundown of the day's events. Nothing over exciting, she enjoyed listening to the stories they told each. To Menially it was better than all the old drama's she had ever watched because this was real. These people were tangible and the emotions were not acted it was all real.

As the nights' conversation was winding down Menially lazily scrolled through transmission logs when something stood out as odd. She checked them twice before sitting up proper in her chair and barking out orders to the Central Command staff.

"MB. Are we the only ones watching them?" Menially asked incredulously, shooting the hologram projected robot a dirty look.

"Data logs would indicate you are not the only one watching. The third party has been accessing the same stream of designation Aloy longer then you. It has only been in the last 72 hours that the signal for miss Odine has also been breached as well. The intrusion on both Focuses seems to be originating from the same terminal." Answered the monotone voice of MB.

"You didn't think this was something that I should be made aware of?"

"It was beyond the limited parameters for monitoring that you issued." Answered MB.

Even though she knew it was her fault, it was not something that she factored in. It wasn't even something she thought she would have to factor in. The world was primitive compared to her, so system intrusion or hacking, as it was once called was the furthest thing from her mind. She would not be making that mistake again.

"I want all firewall logs. Make sure we haven't been compromised. Then I want to know who is watching them. If they have found out about us it could be an _issue_." Menially absentmindedly brought her right hand to her lips and began biting her thumb nail. If the facility was compromised it could be problematic and put all current projected far behind if they had to relocate to Bravo Base.

She had made a mistake and mistakes were not something she could afford. Who out there in the ruins of the world had the intellect to do this was the prime question on her mind.

She had to wonder if there were others like her out in the world? The instant replay from her mental conundrum was no. There was no one as smart as she was. It was a mistake, plain and simple. She was allowed to have failings, as long as they were very limited.

"No signs of intrusions Lady Menially. The trace will be complete in 32.445 seconds."

Menially sighed with relief knowing that they had not been compromised. Seconds later MB spoke up again with the results of the trace.

"We have the other observer." Chimed the monotone voice.

"On the big screen – now!" The image of bald black man appeared on the large display, Menially eyed the man incredulously.

"Late forties, earlier fifties maybe. What the heck are those blue things sticking out of his skin eww." Menially commented disgustedly.

"They seem to be some kind of ritualistic body art. Visual analysis suggests they are Optical Node Links harvested from machines."

"Double eww." Menially shivered. The stream from the new person suddenly changed and the image was snow scape for a moment. Then the image was back but this time the face she was looking at was not oblivious to being watched. Menially pushed her L.E.N.S. up the bridge of her nose.

It was time to address the other on looker.

"Well what do we have here?" Asked the man. "Hello, I know your there."

"He can't see or hear us, right?" She asked.

"That is correct my Lady." Answered MB.

"Let him see me, but give me retina control through my L.E.N.S. Let's see if he can get past first firewall, set up a honey pot for him to get into but don't make it easy. If he manages to get through the second firewall, the real one, override his Focus and burn his ear off." Using the optical controls of her L.E.N.S. Menially set the viewable area he could see to her only. Then a few more eye movements and a message blinked indicating that she was broadcasting.

"Ahh well isn't this a surprise." Said a gruff male voice. "I never would have imagined someone other than myself was capable of monitoring others through the Focus network."

"Believe me the feeling is mutual. Who are you?" Menially snapped.

"Direct to the point. I can appreciate that. You may call me Sylence and what should I call you young lady?" Menially gritter her teeth.

"Menially, don't ever call me _young_ lady again." She bit out. "Why are you watching those two girls?"

"Hmm. I could ask you the same thing." Sylence said his face hardening at her stern remark. "Yes, about that. I have a lot time invested in the red head. I never imagined that she would find an Old One. This Nadia is very interesting." A message passed across Menially's L.E.N.S. alerting her to an intrusion in the first firewall. Whoever was working to break into her system was good, too good to be human. Things were getting more interesting every minute. "What about yourself, what is your interest in them?"

"My interests in them are my own." She said crossing her arms. A message appeared letting her know the first firewall was breached. Her mind was racing now. This was beyond what she was expecting or truly ready for, this man was not a threat, he was nothing. The one hacking her system however could be an issue. The hacker was still working hard to get in but now they were in a honey pot, he thought he was really getting into her system but in truth they were just hacking into a system that would go on forever in an endless loop. A perfect virtual fake.

MB alerted her by way of a message on her L.E.N.S. that there was now more than just Sylence's Focuse link trying to get in. Three more had joined in to try and breach the network.

"Your rather technical savvy it would seem," Sylence smirked like he was pleased at being recognized, but only lasted for a moment. "Correction, not you, but rather the _other_ that's with you. Oh, your friend is just working so hard to get in to find out all my little secrets." Sylence's face was as hard as stone now and Menially smirked knowing she hit a nerve. "I'm guessing your friend is the real brains behind you." This was the comment that finally set Sylence off.

"You should be careful who you mock little girl. You would do well to not anger your betters." Now it was Sylence turn to look smug and Menially's to look furious. "You obviously have a wealth of old world tech if you can hijack Focus communication and are able to keep my _friend_ out, but not forever I think. Not before we find out where you are." Menially gritted her teeth and clinched her fists.

"Even as good as your _friend_ is he'll never get in. He obviously isn't too smart and neither are you." A few fast moments of her eyes and several blinks later there was a guttural shriek in the background of Sylence's communication. He turned to look at someone off to the side then back a Menially. Rather than a smirk now she had turned cold. He had threatened her and her home. The time for talking was over.

"Well _Sylence._ " Menially spat, the venom was dripping from each work as she spoke slow and calmly. "You and your _friend_ are the ones that should be careful. These are my lands, my home! If you want to come here, you're going to stay here forever! I'll burry you here!" She finished as her fury boiled over. A few blinks and eye movements later the feed went dead. She was steaming and she sat down thinking before barking out new orders.

"MB. I want security doubled on our access to the Focus network. I want to know if that bastard is watching Aloy and Nadia. If so use and external link and burn him… In face burn all the Focuses using his frequency we won't get them all but it will slow him down." Menially stood and began walking out of the command room but then stopped before exiting. "One more thing. Start diagnostics on the Arch's I want them in fighting shape if it comes to it. I also I want all the FAS-Scorpions and FAS-Deathbringers to remain in silent mode for now. But should they get a positive ID on that man kill on sight, anyone else I want a threat assessment and I'll make the final call. Wake me day or night if anything comes up. No more lose ends MB."

With that she left the control room. The day wasn't over however, she had been letting this side project stand in her way of her major projects. It was time to play catchup and pull a three day streak of working. There were advancements in science that needed to continue. She was getting off routine and while that would not stop progress, it did slow it down.

(。´д｀。)

" _Dr. Gregory I have a question for you." The older man looked up from his desk to meet the eyes of Ted Faro. The bags under Teds eyes made it evident that he had not been sleeping. He had lost weight in the last few weeks leading up to the final lock down that was scheduled for a week from now._

 _"Yes of course Mr. Faro what can I do for you." Asked Gregory in a solemn tone. Ted had been on edge lately the pressure of everything seemed to be getting to him._

 _"I was just wondering, if, umm… Say I wanted to shut down the Protocol Zero contingency. What would I have to do?" Gregory blinked. His eyes had grown wide. Months ago, against his better judgment, against his Hippocratic oath to do no harm he had. He had broken the oath he had taken as a doctor and had taken in a manner of speaking. She was alive, but not alive at the same time. She many never wake up again and someday far in the future the system keeping her alive would fail and finally he would be able to rest._

 _But now here Ted was asking how to kill her. The very man that asked this unspeakable deed of him. There as a knot forming in the doctor's stomach._

 _"Mr. Faro I don't think I understand, you want to shut down the Zero Protocol contingency? Sir you said it yourself if Zero Dawn fails she might be the world's only chance. Even as unlikely as it is that it will ever happen." Ted ran his hands threw his hair expelling a deep breath. He fidgeted where he stood as Dr. Gregory looked on._

 _Gregory suddenly felt like a father waiting for his child to confess the truth about some wrong he had done._

 _"Look Mark, can I call you Mark?" He asked and continued without receiving and answer. "Mark I've been thinking and some glaring issues have come up with the whole Zero Dawn project. It's just… were just starting the whole problem all over again. The next generation, more accurately the new innocent generation that will come after us will just make our same mistakes unless someone fixes it."_

 _Ted turned and started pacing the room walking from side to side becoming more animated as he spoke. Mark couldn't help but notice the budge at the base of Teds back at waist level._

 _"I have come to realize that… The next generation needs to have a clean slate. Not be handed the knowledge that we have so they can repeat this sick cycle again. I'm taking steps now to limit our impact on them, but Protocol Zero might interfere so_ _ **we**_ _need to take it out of the equation you know." Ted said smiling at Mark. The horror on Mark's face didn't seem to faze Ted as he explained his plan._

 _'Dear God what have I done. I've made a deal with the devil.' Mark thought to himself. He took a deep breath thinking hard about what he could do. He had let this go on to far. He had compromised to much again and again and again. It was in a split second that he finally made a resolution. He was already damned, what was one more sin._

 _Dr. Mark Gregory was going to kill Ted Faro._

 _Mark stood and made his way around the front of his desk. Taking solace as he looked at the picture of his wife that sat on his desk. He nodded to Ted, as he continued, placated that man as he explained everything. Mark sat on the edge of his desk and his right hand rested on the small salt rock lamp on the edge. It was hard and rock like, if he could get just one good swing at Ted's temple he would be okay. He just had to play along and wait for the right moment._

 _"Ted the problem with shutting down Protocol Zero is that the facility is already locked up tight. No signal is getting in or out of there. There is no effective way to remotely do anything with the site and last I checked were almost at zero hour. I'm sorry Ted but there is no way to abort." He said holding Ted' almost manic gaze._

 _"I see." Ted said and turned on the doctor swiftly drawing a pistol. "That's just disappointing Mark. But not unexpected. I guess I'll just have to go with my back up plan, I still have time to contact R and D Site-42 and have to tactical AI handle the problem if it ever comes up. That only leave you Mark." Tad shook his head._

 _"See you know too much and about what happened to Odine, oh sorry, Doctor Odine. Franklin College honored her post mortem. I'm sorry Mark you know about Protocol Zero, you know about Odine and more importantly you know about Site-B." The shot was loud. Mark had never heard a gun go off before. He had treated gun shoot wounds but he had never been the recipient of one._

 _He looked down stunned as blood flowed freely from his stomach. A red river was running down him and he blinked, it was like time was moving in slow motion and just a moment later the floor was racing up to meet him. He had been shot in the gut, he would bleed out in minutes. During all this Ted had left the room. The world was growing cold and his sight was blurring. The edges of his vision darkened further slowly overtaking his vision completely. Until finally there was nothing._

 _His last thought of the poor woman that he had condemned to purgatory. Her only hope of salvation was an event that would never come and even if it did, she would likely be the only living creature on a dead planet. With that Dr. Mark Gregory died at the hands of a mad man and he wouldn't be the last._

(^~^)

It had taken three days longer than expected to get here. Due to weather and our earlier stops in the afternoons to allow time for Nadia practice her bow work, which was not rapidly improving much to her dismay. She was doing well with a sling so for the rest of the trip I had given her my Carja Sling.

She had thankful picked up the art of crafting the various Freeze, Shock and Blaze shot for the sling. Her bow work still left something to be desired but she was getting good at crafting arrows. She had even started working on an idea for a new arrow but said it would take time and some testing. She admitted that she would need more blaze then I had and she didn't want to try anything at the time with our limited resources.

Now however we were coming over the last of the great mountains and were heading down the mountain. The plan was to make it to Meridian, rest up and resupply for a day or two then head on the sacred lands and hopefully some idea of where we should go next.

I was so lost was I in my thoughts that I had missed the sight off in the distance but Nadia amazed gasp.

"Wow!" I looked off to the east at the lake far below us and smiled. We were finally back to more familiar lands. "Is that it."

"Look beyond the lake, off in the distance. The plateau far past the lake, that Meridian." Nadia gasped and I felt her arms tense.

"I think I might know where were at… Atleast what it used to be called. I might be wrong though. The terrain has changed a bit but I think that lake down there. It looks like Lake Powell."

"Oh? Was that a big deal?"

"Well no, not really. It was just a pretty place. I came here once when I was younger, with my mother, we came after I was dismissed from college. This future is pretty impressive in its own way. From what you said it sounds like humanity has made it back to about the bronze age, but at the same time with the existence of the animal like terminating machines humanity has jumped years ahead. It's like a futuristic fantasy world from a story, maybe a video game setting."

"What's video game?" Nadia chuckled and brushed it off as something to talk about later. "Well the good news of the day is we should be in Meridian by tonight. We'll have to forgo our sparing practice this afternoon but I think it will be worth taking a night off if we get to sleep in a bed and have a decent meal don't you."

"I wouldn't mind a bath." I took Nadia's reply as her agreement and Spurred the strider on. With any luck, we will arrive around sunset. Enough time to go to drop our stuff at Olin's old place and then get some dinner at one of the local places.

For saving Meridian and the world Avad had offered his palace to me whenever I was in Meridian but the whole comparing me the Erza was still a bit off putting. Erend had suggested that since Olin and his family would no longer be living in Meridian then I could be the new owner of his home, now my home. Truthfully, I want to turn it down, but I hadn't. It was my safety net for the time being.

I was the Anointed to the Nora, a fact I still did not like, I didn't know how long that would save me from being an outcast again. This time however I might become an outcast of my own choosing. There was so much more to the world then the Nora's small valley. With that in mind I had accepted the home on behalf of the Sundom.

In a way, it was home. Where I grew up with Rost no longer was because he wasn't there. So now I had a home of my own. I had planned on staying a while when I came back but now I would have to cut my stay short. I would at least meet up with Erend while I was here and let him know I was back. I wanted to keep the friendship I had with Erend and we were just friends. Sleeping in a bed was going to be a nice change of pace after the last two weeks.

(^-^)

If FAS-B345T could be frustrated it would. The search grind had become far larger than the first projections. The grid had now expanded 126 times and the rouge asset had still not been found. So, the search continued. It would not fail and it would never stop. If it could not find the asset the operations orders suggested that the asset would try and reach Site-B and within the next 31 hours Alpha Team Assets and Bravo Team Assets would arrive at the facility and deploy their payload of Hit-MrX. The Hit-MrX units would then begin work to breach the facility. All the while Charlie Team and Delta Team assets would secure the perimeter of the facility.

As luck would have it, even though FAS-B345T had no concept of luck it had just received a lucky break in the report that was now receiving from the Chimera search team.

-BEGIN LINE-

[REPORT 123-4543639B]

[CONTACT ACTIVITY FOUND: HUMAN ACTIVITY – CAMP-SIGHT DISCOVERED]

[COORDINATING WITH LOCAL ASSETS AND MODIFYING SEARCH AREA USING POINT OF ORIGIN AS REFERENCE]

[PROBABLE TRAJECTORY TO CONTINUE IN EASTERLY DIRECTION]

[ALL CHIMERA ASSETS IN-ROUTE]

[NEXT SCHEDULED UPDATE IN 9.5HRS]

[PREVIOUS ORDERS STAND = YES]

[EXECUTING NEW SEARCH PERIMETERS]

[HAVE A NICE DAY ^w^]

-END OF LINE-

-A/N-

 **Krav Maga** is a real martial art that is used by the Israeli Defiance Force IDF. It borrows from other martial arts. Unlike other arts Krav Maga was developed to be used in real life combat, and to be lethal.

 **Lake Powell** is a reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. It is a major vacation spot that around two million people visit every year.

I decided to throw in a few places going forward that are real places that were used as inspiration for the game. For instance the fallen city you pass through before you get to Devils Thrust is Colorado Springs, Colorado. There are a lot of great places that are real or based on real places and it makes the game more memorable and a little sad to see somthing you know reduced to what it is in the game.

I hope that didn't come off as me trying to make Nadia awesome giving her a martial art. She is no master or anything. I think about her as a child that is so smart they cannot relate to people. She devalues others that are not as intellectually capable as she was. In an effort to fix this her mother made her do things with other people. The exception to this of course being Hannah that she has spoken about a few times.

Any way please let me know what you think so that I can improve the story. I still conceder this to be more of a draft of the story. I hope I'm doing it justice. I don't really dig deep into Aloy as most people have played the game and know it. I'll touch on it lightly here and there but that's about all.

Any way please let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading.


	5. 1:5 Truthiness

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Please support the official release.

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

Edited by Grammarly App

We arrived in Meridian after dark, the city was still buzzing with people but after several days traveling both Nadia and me were too tired to care. As we made our way through the city I could see Nadia was interested as she took in all the sights and had the traveling not caught up to us I'm sure she would have wanted to see everything. We ate in silence Nadia's eyes would wander around to all the people as she chewed mechanically, still, the wonder was there under the fatigue. IT was well after most had gone to bed when we made it to Olins, now my house.

I gave Nadia the bed, and there were no protests I think she was out by the time her head hit the furs. I wasn't far behind as I made a pallet on the floor. After stocking the fire, I lay down and thought. We made it this far, and there was so far yet to go, but now I had a real hope that I might be able to do something. With Nadia's skills and know how we had a chance. I tried to run through a plan what to do next, but sleep was coming too fast, and soon I was out as well. My last thought was about having a goal again and how good it felt now that it might be attainable.

^w^

 _Mérida Odine was having a very nice quiet evening at home, however, that all came to a halt as her attention was drawn to the front door opening swiftly and then slamming shut as quickly. She looked up from her book to see her seventeen-year-old daughter dragging in her best friend Hannah and the girl look like she had been crying. She closed her book as Nadia's eyes zeroed in on her, she stomped into the living room, and Mérida just waited at her chair by the fire for an explanation of what was happening._

 _"Mom, Hannah will be living with us now." Her daughters cry caused the older women to blink a few times as the two teens walked in._

 _"Not that I don't like Hannah but why might I ask is she living with us now and what has you so upset dear? I can't see her parents allowing that." The two younger girls sat on the sofa and immediately Mérida saw the darkening bruise on the side of the young Hannah's face. "I think I should get some ice for Hannah's cheek and then you can tell me what this is about."_

 _It was only a brief time later Hannah was holding a cold compress on her cheek at the instruction of Mérida. The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears and she kept a tight hold on Nadia right hand like it was a lifeline._

 _"Okay, Nadia, from the beginning please explain to me what happened." Said Mérida, taking a sitting back in her chair._

 _"As you know we went over to Hannah's parents for dinner. It was a mostly boring useless conversation, you know, how was your day, what a sunny day, you know that crap. Well, we had finished dinner, and Hanna took my hand," For effect, she held up there still joined hands. "When her mom went into the kitchen to get the desert, it was going to be ice-cream, vanilla bean probably not the best but the richness..." Mérida fingers snapped stopping Nadia._

 _"Sweetheart, focus, I'm sure the ice cream is a moot point." Nadia looked a bit embarrassed and nodded._

 _"Sorry, yes, so anyway while she was gone her father got this really funny look. He asked why we were holding hands at the table. Hannah turned all red-faced and looked away, and I just told him it was because I love her. Then for no reason he gets all mad, he starts ranting about heathens or something. I mean what does he think I am a *Luddite? I mean how does telling someone that you love someone make then so mad._

 _"Well, he finally got up and was mad, and he grabbed Hannah. He asked her if it was true and she answered him honestly. Then he slapped Hannah and called her a harlot. So, I dropped the shithead!"_

 _"Nadia! What have I said about that language?" Mérida's eyes took on a hard stare and Nadia gulp before speaking._

 _"That it's unbecoming of someone with my level of intellect. Sorry, Mother. But he deserved what he got… Besides if anyone wants to know at the time, I feared for my life." Mérida looked at her daughter and sighed. She was covering her bases._

 _"What did you do to Warren?"_

 _"Broke his arm. He won't be using it to backhand anyone for a while." At this Hannah couldn't take anymore and turned to Nadia and buried her face in the older girl's shoulder as sobs racked her the young blond. Nadia seemed surprised for a moment like she didn't know what to do, then she slowly snaked her arm around Hannah and just held her. She glanced from the girl clinging to her daughter for dear life to Mérida searching for the answer of what to do in this situation. Mérida simply nodded._

 _"After that Hannah's mom was back watching everything and was screaming when I wrenched Warrens arm backward. She was yelling at both of us to get out, and she didn't have a daughter that was some sexual deviant yadda-yadda, something-something crap-crap. That's when I took Hannah's hand and drove home. She almost didn't let go till we got here._

 _"He just took it the wrong way. He didn't mean too." Hannah said through sobs._

 _"Took what the wrong way?" Asked a perplexed Nadia._

 _"When you said you love me. I know it's not like that." Hannah said. The tears finally stopped as she tried to look at Nadia._

 _"Not like what? I don't get it? I didn't think love had dual meanings. To quote Doctor Seuss: I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. I love you. How could I not, you pretty, your fun to be with, you manage to put up with me, and most people seem to find me very… vexing other you, Mom and Elizabet. Dr. Roberts at the lab I think hates my guts but well I'm his boss so he can get over it."_

 _"Nadia dear when you say you love Hannah her parents took it as you meant romantically, like dating, becoming interment one day." Nadia just blinked at Mérida assessment she seemed to be processing what her Mother was trying to convey to her then her eyes got wide as Mérida finished "Warren didn't handle the preserved news well. Something that he will have to live with when I call protective services. Do you understand?"_

 _"Ohh. You mean like kissing and getting married one-day couple-stuff." Mérida nodded, it was an oversimplification of what she meant, but Nadia had the jest of it right._

 _"Then, in that case, he had it right. Because I do love you in that way, I would love to marry you one day. I mean not right now, she is still in school, and I only got the job at Pearl Labs a few weeks ago." Mérida blinked. Surprised at her daughter declaring that she did, in fact, LOVE the other girl._

 _Mérida didn't know what to say to that. She had no issue what so ever with her daughter marrying another woman. But Mérida knew it was not the form that Nadia loved it was the person. She loved Hannah, and so one day they would get married if Hannah reciprocated her daughters feeling. Mérida noted that Hannah was almost as dumbstruck as she was._

 _"You love me and would marry me?" Asked the timid girl._

 _"Um yeah, that's what I said. I love you; I would in fact like to marry you one day if that's what you want. Why are your two looking at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train."_

 _Mérida watched as Hannah launched herself at Nadia and the two toppled on the couch as Hannah's lips landed on her daughters. Now it was Nadia's turn to look dumbstruck, Hannah had always been something of a follower and timid, a wallflower at heart. Nadia looked around not knowing what to do with the object of her affection's lips on hers. Hannah finally pulled back and smiled at Nadia below her._

 _"I love you too." She leaned in and kissed her again, and this time Nadia thought better of herself and met her halfway. The two smiled at each other as they broke apart._

 _"Well good, we love each other. Now we need to figure out rooming accommodations." This comment finally broke the mental fog that Mérida had been in as she watched her daughter basically propose to her girlfriend, who accepted._

 _Mérida cleared her thought to get the two girls attention. "Hannah your welcome to stay as long as you need, the guest room is yours. But I think we will still have to speak with your mother and father, who I will be reporting to the authorities. Oh! Bedroom doors are to remain open at all times!"_

 _Nadia gave her an odd look, and her head tilted to the right ever so slightly. "Why would we shut them?" She asked innocently, as Hannah looked down blushing._

 _Mérida just smiled even more, for her daughter to be so brilliant, could be very dumb in other ways._

~w~

Nadia's eye shot open. She was in a room lite only by a few beams of sunlight flowing in through a high window. Her mind finished processing everything. They had made it to Meridian late last night, eaten something, it wasn't Turkey thank God, then preceded to Aloy's home.

After stretching, she removed the covering of pelts and rolled out of bed. She didn't remember stripping down to her underclothes but just shrugged it off. Thankfully her clothes were close by and after dressing made her way downstairs.

She expected to find Aloy but from what she could tell there was no one here. Being curious she prowled around the house finding a kitchen area. It was surprising to see how the blend of, to her anyway, ancient world technology meshed with that of more advanced technology. There was a cooking area, and it looked as if a Blaze container beside it like an old-style gas stove she realized. The biggest surprise she had was that there was running water, granted it was only cold water, but still, that was somewhat impressive to have running water from a tap.

After the perusing of the kitchen and other rooms, she was a little miffed that there was no bathtub but a vanity pump to draw water and what equated to be a toilet that too had functioning flushing like system thankfully. Nadia decided to go outside. She wouldn't go far from the house but sitting around in silence was not something she enjoyed.

When she left, she was surprised that the house did not let out to the main street but rather an ally way. Farther down she could hear the bustle of the early morning crowd, but once she was there and saw the crowd it almost took her breath away. There were so many people, and to Nadia, it was like being at one of the comic conventions Hannah had drug her to once. To her, it was like everyone was dressed in some ostentatious costume.

But they're not. These were real people going about their real daily lives. For some time, she was content to watch the people passing by; most just ignored her while some gave her odd looks.

Nadia appraised herself, the clothing she had were comfortable, they had been made from an All-Weather material, but it would make her stand out like a sore thumb. All-Weather was one of those products that were for form and function, not fashion because the material looked like puffy tinfoil. It didn't reflect light really, but it kept heat in.

As she stood there, a familiar red head came of out of the crowd carrying a bundle of furs as well as some other items. The redhead beamed as she walked up to Nadia.

"I see you're awake. Sleep well?"

"Pretty well kind of nice sleeping in a bed," Nadia said as she fell in line behind her.

"I picked you up some new clothes; I'm sure in your time those were great but here they stand out a little bit." She grinned as the two entered the living room.

"I got that impression while I was people watching. Today's attire is _interesting_." She chuckled.

Aloy just nodded before handing the new clothes to Nadia and explained what some of the items were after the bewildered look Nadia gave her. When Nadia returned from the dress, Aloy looked her over and grinned.

"Okay, what did I screw up?"

"Nothing I didn't consider that you are a little shorter than I expected. Here we can tighten up these straps, and it will be fine." She said helping the other girl to adjust the fur-lined tunic.

Nadia was not a fan of some of the outfits she had seen some people wearing, but Aloy's choice of clothing seemed to have work in her favor. There was an elbow undershirt that went on first and on top of it was a fur-lined jacket of sorts with the collar flared out, so the fur was more visible around the neck.

Aloy had to take the pants legs up since the length was too long. Woven into them were small triangular plates from some machine she could not identify. Aloy also had the foresight to get a belt that was more utility with various pouches that hid under a few of the thick Kevlar plats on the side.

All in all, Nadia looked like anyone else that might have been walking down the street she had just been watching.

"It's not as Nora looking as I would like but it will do." Aloy said.

"What do you mean?" The way Aloy said it it sounded like a bad thing.

"Well," Aloy explained sheepishly. "The Nora are not as welcoming to outsiders as much as people here. In fact, for the longest time, the Nora wouldn't let anyone on their lands. Not to mention your defiantly not Nora but in fact an Old One."

Nadia gave Aloy a perplexed look. "What does being an Old One have to do with the Nora?"

"Well, the Nora believe that the reason the Old Ones died out was that they were punished…" She finished biting her lip, and Nadia's eyes narrowed.

"Punished? How so?"

"That the Metal Devil rose up and destroyed them because they turned their back on _All-Mother,_ Gaia in a way _._ Blasphemers in the eyes of their Goddess." Nadia for her part just blinked.

"Let me get this straight." She said taking a deep breath. "In their eyes, I'm a heathen that turned my back on their Goddess, _All-Mother_ , Gaia."

"Yes."

"So, it's probably for the best that they don't find out that I'm one of their heretics."

"Yep."

"Add to the place we have to go to access the Terminal interface is one the holiest places they have. I miss anything?"

"You forgot that just as a matter of principle you're an Outsider, and they will not be very friendly because of that alone." Nadia's head slowly moved up and down. "But look on the bright side I have a surprise for you. You're not very good with a bow yet, and that seems more like something that will take some time but this." She said taking out a device that looked to have a handle like a gun but on top was a forked piece of metal with some straps attached to them.

"I figured this might be useful for the time being. It's a sling-shot, you won't get the range as you would with a bow, but a slingshot can come in very handy. Also picked up some Blaze, and Chillwater while I was out so we can craft up some shots for it." Nadia took the contraption and looked it over.

"You're deflecting the question. But thank you." Nadia had never used a slingshot in her life, but the concepts seemed simple enough. Pull back object you wanted to shoot at something.

"I also got you a knife. Never know when you might need one in the wilds." Nadia gave the grinning girl an incredulous look.

"You're still deflecting from the issue here." She said.

"Okay fine I don't know! I mean it's not like you have a sign on your forehead that says Old One. I'm hoping my status as _All-Mother's Anointed_ will just let us go in with no questions. Maybe I can tell them that _All-Mother_ told me to bring you. I'm taking this one step at a time." She said in frustration. Then slumped down on the couch. "It's the best I can do. It's amazing we're all still here after what Hades and the Eclipse were trying to do. I'm not Elizabet, do you have any idea what luck it was that I stumbled on to the clues I did and managed to stop an AI. That I could figure out how your worlds tech works enough to get by? More than half of the technology you probably used every day would seem like garble to me."

Nadia stepped forward and sat down beside Aloy; she reminded her of her friend and occasional mentor. But at the same time, not her, she was not Elizabet, and in this day and age, she didn't need to be.

"Aloy with the resources you had at your disposal you did a fantastic job. No, you are not as smart in the same way as Elizabet was but that in no way means you're not smart. She grew up in a different time and place then you _did_. She was a different person you _are_." Nadia leaned back looking up at the ceiling. "You're not Elizabet; sure there are similarities, your looks being chief among them, your mannerisms and your drive to accomplish in the overwhelming face of adversity. Sure, there the same qualities she had, but those are traits that any parent would be proud to have passed on to their child. I can't imagine what a duo you two would have made, its damn scary to think about. She would be proud of you, and I know if she is looking down at you and smiling." She finished turning to see Aloy looking back at her, and a single tear fell down her face, but then another and another.

Before Nadia knew it, Aloy had thrown her arms around her and was sobbing on her shoulder. Nadia did what seemed natural and placed a comforting hand on her back and let her go. Much like herself, Aloy had never really cried about what had happened, nor for the mother that she lost before ever getting to know her.

The two both had pasts that were going to haunt them, and in many ways, their histories were unresolvable. Nadia could never get back the people and places she loved, and Aloy could never meet the women that she thought abandoned her.

Neither of them could ever cry on the shoulder of the person they wanted. For Aloy it was Elizabet, and for Nadia it was Hannah. Nadia didn't notice the tears that threatened to spill over as she thought about her lost love. But for now, she knew that Aloy needed this because just like her she needed to a shoulder to cry on.

^w^

Menially had neglected most of her current projects for the past week in favor of watching her new reality show, The Adventures of Nadia Odine and Aloy. The latter of which her systems identified as Elizabet Sobek. She had turned a blind eye to her projects and not being as meticulous had cost her. One was now three whole days behind. She had just pulled a fifty-hour shift to bring it all back up to standard.

While botany was not her favorite project, it still played into the larger scheme of things. A more robust plant made terraforming easier if it could withstand harsh environments. She also found that she enjoyed the blue flowers that blossomed on her newest creations. She had thought about going back to the drawing board and making them purple, but that would take weeks of careful DNA mapping and restructuring before even working to produce viable seeds. The flower's color was irrelevant it would provide the desired growth, pollinate others and the cycle of life would move on.

Menially heard the door to the room open but paid no mind to the person that entered. After all, there was no other sentient living being in the facility but herself. Her whorl wind day was now winding down, and she was taking a well-deserved break in a hot tub to wind it down.

"My Lady," Came the monotone voice of MB. "Do you require any assistance? You have been in the bath for some time."

"No MB, I'm fine. Have a meal prepared; I'll take it in the theater. I have a film to watch tonight as well as look at the updates of Aloy and Nadia. Has there been any more interference from the man called Silence?" She asked as she stood and left the bubbling water. She paid MB no mind as she walked over to a table and took first a towel and wrapped it around her head on her wet hair and then another to dry her body before exiting the bathing room.

"Very good my Lady. There has been no more interference or telemetry from, designation, Silence." He said following the girl.

After dressing and having MB assist with brushing her hair, Menially was seated in a large theatre that easily could hold several hundred people. Only one person was present as the highlight reel from Aloy and Nadia played. The two were not on their way to the Nora lands; located near what was once Colorado Springs.

From the additional information gathered the two were going there since it had presumably an active terminal that might allow Nadia to access the FARO network and find out where Ted Faro's bunker was or where the mythical Site-B was. It didn't matter to Menially whether they managed to find a backup of the GAIA Prime. But to restore GAIA, they would first have, access the vault inside of Zero Dawn to obtain the solid backups of GAIA and her subordinate programs.

Menially found everything over convoluted and in a way, pointless. The world was still spinning; humanity was still around. What more could they want? The answer to that question was a relative one, Aloy and Nadia wished to save GAIA and Menially wanted her fried chicken and waffles.

The rundown of Aloy and Nadia ended with them on their way to the Nora lands after a night of socializing with some mohawk guy named Errand. The three seemed to be in good company, and then the next day the two had left the city with none the wiser that Nadia was an _Old One._

"Hope they don't kill her when they get to the Nora tribe." She said aloud. "That would be a downer." Menially amended as an afterthought.

Menially pondered that thought for a few minutes about that. Should she take precaution? No Nadia was close to Aloy, and the Nora seemed to think Aloy was the child of their Goddess or something. They would not be there for another two days, so she had time to think about the subject and scheme. Usually, she would never dream of interacting with the world at large, but more recently she had shot that policy to hell and no doubt made an enemy.

With the day's highlight reel of the traveling duo over Menially queued up the movie she had selected to the evening. Lightning day, it was a day that she and her Uncle had always stopped whatever they were doing and watched a movie together.

Now she sat in the large room alone none the worse for the lack of other people. A moment later MB entered the room making his way to his mistress tray and her evening meal in hand. She smiled as she looked down at the two waffles and the fried chicken breast that sat atop them, a light drizzle of a syrup glazed over the meal.

"Just in time MB, as always." She said before arraigning herself and preparing to eat. "Be sure to have some popcorn prepared in, let's say 45 minutes into the feature."

MB merely nodded and took his leave as the large screen flashed into motion. The screen showed a blue background with a golden relief of a lion on it. Soon it faded out to a black screen.

Menially took a bit of her meal and smiled to herself, MB had outdone himself. The screen of a planet was visible now lite by the sun rising behind it and shortly after that at the bottom of the screen the words 2001: A Space Odyssey appeared in white lettering. The plot had seemed appealing. An AI computer goes rogue and kills the crew of a space exploration ship. Add in chicken and waffles; it was the end of a perfect day.

^w^

Over the last few years, Jago had a hard time figuring himself out. He didn't want to be stuck in the clans claim forever. He was right in the forge, but he wanted more. He wanted to see the world, to find things from the metal world that no one ever had. When Barver his uncle had offered the chance to travel with him and learn to be a trader he jumped at the opportunity.

Just a few weeks ago he and his uncle had delved a facility that had been one of the largest he had ever been. It had had five levels, and the lower one still had power, mostly. The bodies of the Old Ones they found there were odd. They had been in some suites made of heavy yellow rubber, and the room had been sealed tight.

The two scavengers were finally able to force the door open, and there was a hissed as the air rushed out. They had not found very much, but it had been an experience. They had found several cylinders that had some power device on them. Neither Barver or his uncle had figured out what they were for yet. So Barver decided they would leave them as is until they were back at the claim and had better access to tools and other clan members that might have a better idea.

Right now, the two were entering Nora lands; the reclusive tribe had finally started letting outsiders enter their territory. The rumors had it that they had a sign from there goddess. Jago didn't believe in that, but the locals did, and one thing he had learned from his uncle was if the locals did then you smile and nod. _Never question a customer boy, and you'll go far. If anything, play into it, and you might sell more._

Words to live by from what Jago could tell. They had traveled for twenty days toward the rising sun to the edge of life, and now they were on their way back. The Nora would be their last stop before the claim.

They hadn't gone far into the valley when Barver stopped suddenly. Slapping Jago in the chest stopping the boy.

"Barver? What is it?" As if to answer a young male wearing the furs and tribal garb that his uncle had told him was indicative of the Nora stepped around a rock outcropping and started walking toward them.

Barver for his part just raised a hand as the dark-skinned male came close enough.

"Do you know where you are? This is Nora land." Barver lowered his hand and stepped forward a few paces.

"Yes, I'm aware of that. My nephew and I are on our way back to the west, and we hoped we might find accommodations for a night and we trade and would be willing to barter for a night's stay." Barver said in his gruff tone. Even though the man looked like he could take down a saw-tooth with his bare hands, he was a soft-hearted fellow. He did have a temper at times if someone wronged him, but he was always far.

The Nora seemed to think about it for a moment sizing both other them up. Jago figured it was two on one so if this _native_ did try anything he was confident that the two of them could handle him.

"We have shards as well if that is more to your liking." He offered up. They didn't have that many shards. The trading on the trip had been less than great. It was more for a delve into the old world than a trade, so they had not made as much as Barver though on what they found.

"I think it will be fine for a day, two at the most. Come I'll show you the way." With that Barver stepped forward and Jago followed. The youth noticed that some of the shrubs seemed to move with him and as if out of nowhere there were easy seven, no, nine people he could count at a glance. "I'm Varel."

Barver and this nit is my nephew, Jago." Jago only nodded dumbfounded that they had been so outmatched and had been at the mercy of the Nora the whole time. He had been a fool. He followed his uncle as he spoke to Varal. It seemed that Meridian had been in a dire straight a few weeks ago and that a girl from the Nora had been instrumental in saving the Sun King and indeed the whole Sundom.

He would later learn she was the Nora's _anointed_ , the chosen of their Goddess. She saved them and more, to hear the Nora talk about her that first night it was like she was a goddess herself. They claimed that she could tame machines and ride them. She could bend them to her will.

That night trading went as well as could be expected. The two would be staying two days to gather their strength for the last hall back to the claim. But for now, Jago was glad not to be walking and just sitting, and the view of some of the local girls wasn't too bad either. He had to admit something was appealing about the backwater types to him.

;3

As much as I would have loved to stay longer, I couldn't help but be excited with the idea of what Nadia could do once we made it to the cradle facility. I still was not sure how I was going get Nadia inside Mothers Heart. I was hoping no one would question there _anointed,_ but it was still a gamble.

The night before we had left Nadia had the pleasure of meeting Eared and how much he could drink. It was a lot. But he had been good about explaining the history of Meridian, his clan, and the surrounding area. Nadia was enraptured with finding out what had happened as far back as Eared could tell her. The unfortunate part was for every story there was a drink, and both Eared and Nadia had mirrored each other in drinks. This did not end well for Eared, but oddly enough Nadia could hold her alcohol. I had two, and I was done. Nadia and Eared had gone six mugs deep.

The next day Nadia was right as rain. A skill I wish I had, I was still feeling a little cruddy after the two drinks. But now a few days later we were finally in Nora lands. Having striders had cut the time I use to have to travel almost in half. We were still making good time even with the snow starting to fall even here lightly. It occurred to me that for all the things we had talked about I had never really asked what Nadia did.

"Nadia, I never asked but what exactly did you do at Zero Dawn?" She looked at me quizzically for a moment; she looked to the sky before speaking.

"I don't guess we ever really covered that did we." She paused. "After all the facility was getting up to speed when I disappeared. Well, I was one of the Alphas on the project. Elizabet was, of course, Alpha 0. My number was Alpha 9. I asked for that number because I like it." She chuckled, and I rolled my eyes. "Elizabet just rolled her eyes when I told her to give me number 9 just because I liked it too. I had been at Zero Dawn for about eight months before, well you know. Anyway, my expertise was neurological dive systems; I practically pioneered the art of creating a _true_ AIs."

"I thought Elizabet created AI's before?" I asked.

"Well yes, she did, but not like what we needed for the project. This was different before I was fired from FARO and Pearl Labs I had been working on a project to create an artificial consciousness. Until I got in the game, AI's were nothing more than fancy programs with excellent communication skills and enough random likes & dislikes to seem real. They had no personality. To put it a none scientific way, they had no soul. Sure, there were AI's that could learn but they couldn't feel. By taking a copy of human consciousness, you could get the beginnings of an AI thought would learn to be someone, not something. It was like having a child. You don't give a child all the knowledge in the world; you must teach them. By interacting with a person and teaching them values be good to people, don't kill people, you get the idea. You allow them to develop their sense of morals, feelings, likes, and dislikes."

Nadia was beaming. "It was the next best thing to having a child. No changing diapers or dealing with waking up in the middle of the night. We had gone so far as to make the base SEELE at Pearl Labs, think of it kind of like a child that was just born; it was a new soul. Ina manner of speaking, anyway we updated the originals once we started Zero Dawn since FARO was all of a sudden open to me and Elisabet again. If the world hadn't been coming to an end, it would have been great. I had hoped that the project I had been working on was still active, but it was… shelved." Nadia took on a far-off look ending the conversation.

*w*

"So, are there any things I shouldn't say to the Nora?" Nadia was still under the impression she was going to be a sacrifice to the Goddess, me or both.

"Be nice and if they don't ask then don't say anything. Don't worry Nadia it will all turn out fine." We were coming up in the valley when we ran into two travelers, Oserom from there looks, on the way from the sacred lands.

"Well, I'll be scrapped for parts." The larger of the two said. The younger one was staring with his mouth open.

"If you don't close your mouth kid you'll catch fly's," Nadia said dryly. She still had a bit of a habit I had learned of saying the first thing that came to mind. Though she told me she was much better than when she was a kid. This caused the larger man to chuckle jovially.

"Well Jago boy looks there, those Nora were telling the truth. I'm Barver, were coming from Mother-Something or another. You must be Aloy." This surprised me.

"Must I?" I asked incredulously.

"Them Nora talked you up perfect girl, savior of the Nora and Meridian. Some even boosted the world." Nadia chuckled from behind on her strider.

"Yes, I'm Aloy," I said nervously. I gestured behind me on the second strider. "and this Is Nadia."

"How?" The younger of the two finally said. "How do you ride them." This was one of the more complicated things to answer but being Oserum, it was a little easier.

"It's a long story. But suffice to say that it took a lot of delving in caldrons to figure it out." The larger man nodded seeming to accept the answer.

"Well, girl good for you. If only this lag-about were as hard a worker as you. Though that is odd, I didn't think you Nora cared for the old world?" He said eyeing me hard this time. "That armor your wearing isn't like anything I have ever seen before much less on a Nora."

"I'm not as Nora as the Nora would like." He chuckled good-naturedly slapping the younger boy on the shoulder. "Well, Aloy if you ever happen near the Ovu Beks Claim you look me up. I would love to pick your brain, but daylights burning. Come on Jago, yalms to go and all that. Aloy, Nadia it was a pleasure meeting you and finding out that our hosts were not billowing smoke." He said as the two began moving on. Both Nadia and I just watched them go for a few minutes, and she looked to me.

"So, the Nora want to get their poster child's name out in the world. They talked you up." I spurred my strider on and grumbled to myself. I just had to make it through a few days, and hopefully, we would have the location of Ted Faro's bunker.

"We have to find Ted's bunker, get the backup AI cores from Zero Dawn, bring back Gaia," I said. I was trying to re-assure myself there was no way it would be that easy. "Easy."

"Easy she says. I hope that I never found out what you think is hard." Nadia said grinning at her redhead friend.

Making their way through ruins of a crumbling city, one that Nadia was starting to suspect it was what was once Colorado Springs and soon she was proven right as the two came upon a statue. While most of the artistic memorial had been eroded by time and damaged by the Faro robots, it was still recognizable. There were two horses, each with a rider on its back it was the Pikes Peak Range Riders memorial. She couldn't quite remember, but it was something about men that would gather and ride around Pikes Peak.

Nadia rained in her strider to a stop for a moment to take in the statue, Aloy noticed and followed suite turning and coming back. "Shard for your thoughts." She intoned. Nadia had commented the day before with the old saying, 'A penny for your thoughts' the saying when over her head, so I re-tooled it for this era.

"This statue, it was in a city called Colorado Springs." Nadia looked around as the ruins of the city with a sigh. "You said we should be there before sundown, right?"

"Yeah, we'll be staying at the lodge tonight, I don't think you're quite ready to go to my old home. There is some climbing involved that might be a little more than your ready for."

"Right, probably need to hold off on that for a bit if its anything like you've told me. Come on; we're burning daylight." Said Nadia spurred her strider gently the action resulting in the mechanical animal moving on. Over the last few days Aloy noted that Nadia had been doing better, even so, there were moments when she seemed more lost than ever.

O_o

We made it through Mother Cradle with little fan fair. There were one or two bows I noted as we passed and a few mutters of the _anointed one_ returning. I expected it to be worse as we came upon Mother's Heart. Before we arrived, we set the striders free and gathered our packs to make the last of the trek on foot. I could tell Nadia was nervous. She kept a watchful eye on her own feet till we made it to the gate where we stopped.

The two guards stood a little straighter as we approached. "Nadia stop looking at the ground were here, and you are acting weird. Maybe I made it sound worse than it is." I regretted those words as it seemed like the world was making a concerted effort to prove me wrong.

"So, the outcast came back," I grimaced at hearing Resh's voice. The other guard at the gate gave him a disapproving look. "and you brought someone else to infest our lands as well."

"Oh, Resh," I said zoning in on the man. "Well, this is a surprise, _your still here_." I turned my attention to the other guard who was not wearing a slight grin and ignored the rest of whatever Resh was going to say. "Is Teersa around?"

"She is the Anointed," she said proudly, and I cringed a little, Nadia chuckled. "I'm sorry, yes Aloy she and the other Matriarchs are at the center lodge."

"That you would come back here…" Resh said as we started to pass, the smart thing to do was ignore the jerk, but I just could not leave him with the last word.

"Well you don't have to worry too much were here to get some answers and we'll be on our way," I said as I continued to walk. The rest of Resh's snide remarks were lots to us as we walked through the crowd. There was a lot of wide eyes and lots of people that still muttered about me being the anointed. Their reverence for me was too much, and I found myself having to stay my words from not lashing out.

"You weren't joking were you," Nadia said walking a little closer than usual.

"No, unfortunately. Come on its up here… I think. I haven't been here very much."

^w0

As the two travelers walked thought Mother's Heart Nadia was all but forgotten falling into the shadow of the _anointed of the Nora._ A few children ran up to us, well Aloy, and just stared. One little girl ran up and touched Aloy, and the group ran off. Other muttered there thanks to here for saving them. Other seem to go so far as to stop and pray as she passed.

Nadia was relieved at least the attention was on Aloy and not her. It was interesting coming from Meridian to here. The culture here was more primitive, other than bits and pieces of machine parts on armor the technology level here was nonexistent.

The two kinds of whether the people and finally made their way to what Nadia assumed was the central lodge. A few people were milling around, and a group of people were whispering, one even pointed but no soon then that happened the crowd spread to allow an older woman to come toward us. A broad smile graced her wrinkled face as she welcomed us.

"Aloy, you have finally returned." The elder said as she approached and took Aloy's right hand. "Come, come you must tell me of your travels." She said almost pulling Aloy.

"Teersa slow down," I said, I was happy seeing her again, but she could get very spirited for someone her age.

However, as the two entered the lodge, the guard stopped Nadia. "Aloy!" She said a little startled.

"Oh, yes, she is with me," I said to Teerse, a smile still on her face.

"Yes, let her in, she is welcome here. Come the both of you sit." Teersa when on to tell the guard to keep everyone else out of the lodge till she deemed otherwise. Finally, the three were alone. As Aloy and Nadia took a seat, the two younger women released a sigh finally making it to the end of their journey, at least the first leg. Now came the tough part and they both knew it.

*_o

As we sat down, Teersa went to work with a kettle and three cups producing tea for the three of us. I looked down the steaming cup trying to think of the best way to explain everything to her. I knew I couldn't explain everything, but at the same time, I didn't want to outright lie to her.

"Aloy, tell me. Did you find what you were searching for?" She looked at me hope to gleam in her eyes. I simply nodded.

"Yes, and no. Teersa while I stopped the great evil, there is more I have to do. All-Mother is sleeping… The evil, Hades forced her into a deep deathlike sleep. She can't wake up, and there is a chance she may never wake again." I glanced over at Nadia she was calmly drinking her tea. Sneaking glances at me as I weaved a web truth in a thin veil of lies. "I need to go back to Mother-Heart, and I need Nadia here to come with me." Teersa might have been okay to let me go where I wanted, including the most sacred places the Nora had but asking to bring an outsider with me and she was a bit more apprehensive.

"Aloy, while I will do all in my power to aid you I feel that there is more to this and young Nadia's role. My sisters will no doubt wish to know why an outside was allowed in Mother-Heart, not to offend you, my dear."

"Understandable," Nadia said speaking up and taking another drink of her.

"If we could I would rather you not tell your sisters… Teersa…" I could see this suggestion was not something that she did not like. "Nadia is the only one that can look through All-Mothers memory's while she sleeps." Okay, I was stretching the truth.

"Not that I don't believe you Aloy but Nadia, how is it you can see the dreams of the Goddess? To my knowledge, this is the first meeting I have had with you. You are not Nora." The loving smile was there, but Teersa's eyes were now calculating as she took in Nadia. To Nadia's credit, she was impassive as she took another long drink of her tea.

"I know a lot about her, All-Mother you call her now, we called her Gaia when she was born." I was frozen as Nadia spoke, but she just kept on going. "Aloy found me sleeping, much like Gaia, All-Mother, the world has changed since my time." Nadia finished placing her tea down in a calm and very calculated move and fixed Teersa with a stare. Then she laughed.

"Aloy found me by accident or fate, maybe destiny... The man that destroyed the world, the one that turned the machines against humanity, that unleash the Metal Devil. He is the same one that put me into what should have been an eternal sleep. If not for Aloy I don't think I would have ever woken up. There is a way to awaken All-Mother, but so much has changed. I believe the answer to waking her might be in her memories. But the only way to know is if you allow me to the place you now called Mothers-Heart. Besides though she may be sleeping she will still recognize me and allow me entry into Mother-Heart. That said she picked up her cup and took another drink finishing it off. That was very good may I have another?"

I felt as though my blood was fully iced now. Nadia has not outright called herself a goddess, but she had said that she was the mother of All-Mother. I had no idea what to say, all my plans, thin as they were, was now up in smoke. Mechanically I turned to Teersa so was looking on impassively. In short, we were doomed.

* * *

 **AFTERTHOUGHTS**

Did you see that coming… Ah brutal honesty with a gentle lie.

I really hope to hear your thoughts on how the story is developing and any ideas you might have about what's going to happen.

 **Q &A**

 **Q** Ilireanwri - This is a good story and a very interesting one. But I'm very curious who (or what) Menially is?

 **A** That... is a secret. Well, be learning a little more about Menially as we go. She really likes her science. Someone PMed me and asked was she GLaDOS, though that is a funny thought, she is NOT GLaDOS. I would be curious to hear peoples thoughts on her. :3

 **Q** StreetPiet - Hades was the Hacker that tried to gain access to Menially's system but instead gets tricked by a Honeypot?

 **A** In computer terminology, a **honeypot** is a computer security mechanism set to detect, deflect, or, in some manner, counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally, a honeypot consists of data (for example, in a network site) that appears to be a legitimate part of the site, but is actually isolated and monitored, and that seems to contain information or a resource of value to attackers, who are then blocked. This is similar to police sting operations, colloquially known as "baiting," a suspect.

 **Q** BenRG - I'm thinking that Ted realized that Elizabet and Nadia were potential threats to his plan to 'reset' humanity to the base condition.

 **A** That's pretty spot on. I hope the amount of time between when Nadia went 'missing' till Zero Hour was enough to get that Ted did plan on Nadia as a backup plan, but he went crazy and... well you know. I will say there is much more to it that well find out latter the plan was far greater then what it seems.

 **NOTES...**

It will not happen in the next chapter, but I do plan on using The Frozen Wilds setting for some of this story. You have to remember it has now been over a month that Aloy and Nadia have been traveling and training here and there.

I would not blatantly remind people of ow much time has passed but since fanfiction is not look getting a book when in you get the whole story all at once it might have been a while and people forget details like this.

Also, this cheaper is only half of what I have written so far. I cut this in half. The original before the split was around 14K words.

Again, sorry for any grammar issues. I have tried to improve, and I have been using Grammarly, so I think it might have helped to catch some of the more glaring issues that I just never noticed before.

Next Chapter will be up in a day or two since its written and edited to the best of my ability.

Later o/


	6. 1:6 Logs

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Please support the official release.

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

Edited by Grammarly App

#-#

It had been a while since I had stood before this door. The door to the Cradle was massive and it invoked a sense of amazement even from me and I knew it was just a man-made door. I felt as if the world would fall out from under me at any moment. "Are you sure about this?"

"We'll find out in just a second." She replied quietly. With that, she took a deep breath and stepped up to the platform. Teersa had been _skeptical_ of Nadia's claims but with my backing and the assurance that if All-Mother didn't recognize Nadia, she would leave the sacred lands forever. A lot was riding on this. We were betting that Nadia's Alpha level access was still part of the system and would allow her entry. Now we were about to test that theory.

To keep this quite, only Nadia, Teersa and I had traveled thought valley at night. Just a few guards were awake at this time, and no one questioned a matriarch. While no doubt Teersa was skeptical with my backing she was willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

[STAND BY FOR IDENTASCAN…]

Collectively we all held our breath and waited as the system scanned Nadia

[…]

[RECOGNISED… WELCOME DOCTOR NADIA ODINE - OMEGA ZERO ONE]

I released the breath I had been holding as Nadia turned around with a smile as the cradle opened behind her a grin on her face. Though I her access wasn't Alpha level, the system recognized her as Omega level. The only other person that I knew that had that access level was Ted Faro when he used it to kill the Alphas. What was going on here? I took a very hard look at Nadia now as she turned to us and grinned.

"Told you." She smirked. The shuffling beside me drew my attention, and I saw Teersa prostrating herself on the ground, and the grin on Nadia's face fell. As she pointed at Teersa. "What's she doing?"

"Please forgive me for doubting you Great-Mother of All-Mother." I felt a sense of Deja Vu. While it was inappropriate, I almost laughed at the situation.

"Look Teersa; you don't have to do that. If I were in your position, I would have thought I was full of crap too." Nadia said stepping forward in an effort to return to some normalcy. It took some coaching, but eventually, Teersa began to act a little more normal. We did ask that she keep this to herself for now. She was not happy about it, but I explained that we might not be here long and then we might be gone for some time. Thankfully Nadia didn't press the issue and agreed but asked that she be allowed to tell her sisters to which we agreed.

Nadia and I made our way through the cradle, and I could tell something was bothering her more so than usual. Her head shook as she looked at the drawings on the walls from the children that were held captive their whole life by the arrogance and madness of Ted Faro. Nadia seemed to feel that same and spoke up. "It wasn't bad enough he killed everything and everyone. In the end, Ted managed one last great screw you to the world." She said touching one of the last drawings then moving on to the lower levels.

When I was here before I didn't explore I did what I needed. I was here for answers, to find out who I was, born from a machine to try and save a machine from another machine. In the end, it was not so simple. It could be argued that both Gaia and Elisabet were both my mothers. Albeit one was hundreds of years removed.

[AUTHERIZED DOCTOR NADIA ODINE – OMEGA ZERO-ONE]

I looked up as Nadia accessed the ID scan of one of the doors that lead down a hallway I had ignored before.

"Do you know where you're going?" She looked at me and smiled.

"Kinda. Before I start trying to do anything I need to make sure the servers are still running and have an uplink to the other nodes. Even with Gaia prime gone the network should still be there assuming there are ZD facilities still in operation. It was a Mesh network with no central routing point. Every one could act as a relay. There might not be many satellites left so I might only have access to the one in the Americas." I wasn't entirely sure, but I got the jest of what she was talking about.

The door hissed open, and we continued down the hall every footstep echoed as we came to another double door, and my Focus told me that it was a server and terminal equipment room. Another scan and we were in. The room was alive with the whirring of fans and the sights of dancing lights on all the devices all around. Nadia found a seat at a desk, and a few seconds later the screen on the desk came alive. There was a lump in my throat as the screen changed to the FARO logo.

"This is it," I whispered. "Isn't it?"

"Well known in a minute," Nadia said quietly.

The screen flashed a few times and then there was text on the screen requesting a name. Swiftly Nadia's hand flew into motion across the keyboard.

"Damn." My breath hitched with the words on the screen.

[UNKNOWN USER - ACCESS DENIED]

"My username was 'alpha09,' but the system rejected it. They must have removed my network access." Nadia breathed hard. It was like I had been kicked by a strider in the gut. All my hopes and dreams were fading out as, and the world grew a little darker. Then there was an ember left burning.

"Nadia," If her name was 'alpha09' then maybe. "Were all the Alphas usernames that similar?" Nadia turned and looked at me for a moment, thinking.

"I… think so. Things were so fast then that we just took whatever was handed to you… Do you know Elisabet's password?" She asked as hope bloomed in her eyes

"No," I said and she visibly wilted. "But your access might have just changed. Think about it. When you were granted access to the Cradle."

"Right it said that I was a Doctor Nadia Odine. I never even finished college. Why was it calling me a Doctor?" She said rolling her eyes. To be so smart she was very unobservant.

"Your access wasn't Alpha 09; it was Omega 01. What if your username was changed to Omega01." The gears began to turn and she slowly Nadia turn to face the screen again. Her hands typed every letter and number carefully. Then her password was entered, and it seemed that time stopped. Then the screen changed, and time sped back up.

"Oh my gosh. It worked, were in. Were in!" Nadia almost yelled then she began saying to calm down, calm down. "Were in, let's see what we can find out about accessing the network. Cross your fingers."

I didn't know what was happening other than Nadia was again typing fast and lines of data were scrolling across the screen. Then the data stopped. I waited for Nadia to speak and then she did. "The network is still there. Wow, there are a lot of nodes still active. I had to set this cradles status to 'online' to bring the node back up. It just took a while for the network to start making connections again.

"It's not over yet I still have to try and find out where the bunker is if it's still active or even listed here but even so one of these nodes might be Site-B so finding the bunker might not matter. But this is a big step in the right direction." I was grinning like a moron but then so was Nadia.

"Okay, this is good. It's a chance. Which is more than we had a few weeks ago." Things were finally starting to look up. The weight on my shoulders was suddenly lighter. Part of me felt that things were finally starting to go our way.

!-!

For the past two days Nadia had been looking for anything that might tell her where Ted's bunker was, but so far, she had no luck. Nadia had taken over one of the offices that had never been used and with Aloys help had brought two other computers into the office complete with monitors. Since she was the only person ever to use anything here, she had pilfered the other displays from the other office and now sat at a desk with five of them in front of her.

Unlike Aloy, she had not left the Cradle but to eat and take care of other needs. Even with how well things were going Nadia found herself on the third day becoming frustrated. It was late in the afternoon, and she was scrolling through the node.

"Same as the others nothing but a Cradle, in retrospect we should have given the nodes better hostnames. Then maybe I could tell at a glance if it was a Cradle or something else. _Focus,_ make a note for the next apocalypse label facilities better." Nadia chuckled at her joke as her Focus lit up and displayed the note for later.

Nadia looked at the lower right screen dejectedly as a new node populated on her list. She halfheartedly typed a few keys accessing the node, and the most recent logs were streaming on the screen. After a few moments of perusing the logs, she discovered that like most of the others it was another Cradle. The fastest way she had found was to just pull the logs from the node and see what they had in them. She could connect directly to the facilities, but it might take a few minutes for the direct connection to be made through the network. Since the node network was comprised of each node passing data traffic on to the next and the next a node that was a long way away might take a while to respond. She had elected to look at the data logs that were text and smaller in size. Thus they were faster to get.

She was about close out the log when she started noticing the transmission delay. For this node it was close. On a whim, she connected to Cradle.

After a few seconds, the data from the Cradle came online and began to give her the current readout of the facility.

[NODE R934-GIH343 – STATUS = STANDBY]

[STATE = WAIT]

[GAIA PRIME ACCESS = OFFLINE]

[EMBRYO INTEGRITY = 89% | MARGIN OF ERROR = 0.01%]

More data poured out, and the visual user interface finally loaded. Nadia blinked as she started to look at the status and the fog in her mind began to clear. R943-GIH343 still had embryos that were never used. Reaching forward she tapped the visual feeds and after waiting for the cameras in the facility began to show feeds of empty halls and rooms. Thinking about the current Cradle she was at there had been signs of activity, but here there were none.

"So, this site never went online or into production." Swallowing Nadia closed the connection she then looked at the next closest facility and executed the command to connect to another node directly. She made sure to connect to one that she had looked at the logs for and knew was a Cradle. The readout came through and she frowned as she waited for the video feeds to come up.

[NODE R442-GAH971 - STATUS = STANDBY]

[STATE = WAIT]

[GAIA PRIME ACCESS = OFFLINE]

[EMBRYO INTEGRITY = 84% | MARGIN OF ERROR = 0.08%]

"What the hell." The video feeds began to play and again nothing. No sign of activity. The embryo integrity was high meaning that this facility too never when online.

Again, she accessed another node with the same goal and still the same result. With this in mind, Nadia was able to narrow down her searching to include any node that reported the info with WAIT as the state and status of STANDBY.

She had found that other facilities like Caldrons, Minerva Transmitter relays and a few other small facilities had a STATE of READY and a STATUS of ACTIVE. With that in mind, the search was running, and Nadia waited. It took several minutes for the first of the results started coming in.

[NODES = STATUS 'STANDBY' + STATE 'WAIT' = 2]

Then it updated again…

[NODES = STATUS 'STANDBY' + STATE 'WAIT' = 5]

Again…

[NODES = STATUS 'STANDBY' + STATE 'WAIT' = 14]

…

[NODES = STATUS 'STANDBY' + STATE 'WAIT' = 29]

The single digits swiftly had turned into doubles, and about as fast turned into a triple. The list was mounting as she started issuing more direct connection requests in another terminal window to confirm her growing fear.

^w^

I had never gotten to know any other person in my like but Rost, but I have to say that sitting and getting to talk with Teersa was enjoyable. Once Nadia had gotten set up in the Cradle she had started to _nest_ in one of the offices and got to work. I had to drag her out to eat twice now, but she had promised to start coming out regularly to eat with Teersa and me.

I was giving her the benefit of the doubt tonight that she would come of her own free will and I would not need to drag her out.

"I hope I don't have to pull her away again," I grumbled more to myself than Teersa.

"Has the Great… Has Nadia been able to find what she seeks within All-Mother's memories Aloy." I hung my head slightly. I hated to lie to Teersa. I was still reeling that she and her sisters had bought the story that Nadia and I had spun for them. But her having access to the Cradle had washed any doubts away. In a way, it wasn't a lie. Nadia had a hand in bring Gaia to life as much as Elisabet Sobek.

"No not as of yet. It's not easy to find something like what's she is looking for." I don't know how she has put up with reading all that text on the screen over and over again. "It might take some time."

The older women nodded handing me some more tea. Not being around anyone but Rost all my life I had learned to appreciate the simple life. Being back now and interacting with some of the other Nora hadn't been so bad. At least those that didn't almost fall to their knees when they saw me.

I took a drink of the tea and made a mental note that I needed to pack some of the leaves in my travel bag. It was effortless, and I had grown to enjoy it over the last few days. The klaxon alerted both Teersa and me that the vault door was opening. Before the door could open all the way, Nadia stumbled between the openings and made her way to the two.

"So, decided to come out I see," I said as she made her way over to us.

"I need to show you something. Now!" She said all business as she came up beside me.

"Gra... Nadia, you must be hungry. Do you not need food?" Asked Teersa in her very motherly tone that I had come to expect from her. It was honestly hard not to do as she asked. You didn't want to disappoint her. That's what makes the lying feel so much worse too.

"Oh Teersa, haya. Yes, I would love something to eat." She said stepping forward, and for a moment I thought she was going to sit down and eat. What happened instead was she grab a chunk of boar off the platter in one hand and my hand in the other. Then proceeded to drag me to the Cradle. "Thanks, Teersa I'll be back soon, but there is something that Aloy needs to see."

^w^

"What am I looking at again?" I asked. All I could see on the screens was a jumble of words as they ticked by. "Is this somehow getting us closer to finding Ted's bunker?"

"Yes, it will help but what I found disturbs me. Most of the logs of the various nodes are purged on a regular basis. Only major event logs are kept, even hundreds of years back. So, an event that was issued by Gaia as a 'New Directive' was logged and kept." Nadia took a deep breath and pointed to a screen with more text, but ever so often it changed. She pointed to a number on one of the screens as it jumped up by one. "This number is the total number of Cradles I have scanned so far. Not surprising they were created to repopulate the human race so there are a lot of them. That is till Ted managed to inadvertently screw that up too. As we saw in this facility, it was a nightmare, the children spent their whole lives here till the system just let them go due to running out of resources."

"While Gaia couldn't deny her original directive, she was given a lot of leeway in accomplishing it. Also, she had a finite set of rules that she would go by. Aloy from what you know of the world, how far does humanity span?" I didn't know that much about the world, not really. It was only a few months ago that I left the valley. From the time I was in Meridian I knew the world was larger than we thought but from what I had learned it was tiny in comparison to what I had seen.

"A pretty good area, you were with me when we first start getting back into civilization." She just nodded and turned and typed a few kays. Then the center monitor came to life with a round ball, and I soon knew it was Earth. It looked similar to the one I had seen in Zero Dawn, but this one was much more detailed.

"This is the Earth; it spans thousands of kilometer." The screen started to get more detailed, and you could see the tops of mountains and lakes. It was breathtakingly amazing. A circle of green started covering an area as Nadia continued. "This is an area in the green circle is about as large as I could find at a glance so it might be a little larger." Gray dotted line began to pop up as the map finished populating.

"From this area here starting in what was Denver, about where we are now, to Nevada here." All the while she talks she pointed to the map at the names on the map, and I watch, the size of the human population was small in comparison the land mass. "Then from of Montana to the middle of Arizona and New Mexico. That's it."

" _That's it._ I don't follow Nadia." What did she mean, what did this have to do with anything?

"That area is the extent of humanity. That number that keeps ticking up is a number of a Cradle facility out there that still have yet ever to come online and start producing offspring. When Ted wiped out APOLLO, he created a bigger problem then we imagined. Humanity was meant to be born, and in turn help, GAIA manages the planets terraforming system. Aswell as help with the second generation of humans. But without APOLLO that could never happen. It was APOLLO that deemed the children's education complete and ready for the next stage, phase-6. But there was no APOLLO, as you told me about what happened here the children never left this Cradle till they were grown, and the Cradles resources, as well as all the embryos, were expended. Excluding yours of course. Which still puzzles me. Why was your embryo and DNA held back so long? Was this some deep-rooted secret backup plan Elizabet came up with, the answer to that is I don't know. I think it's scarier to think that there might be another me out there. Sorry, I'm getting off topic. Though maybe something to look at one day."

Nadia sat down in the chair and motioned for me to sit as well. So, taking the other chair, I did. Nadia paused a moment and took a bit of the boar she had grabbed from Teersa before dragging me here. She did have a good point, why was my embryo held back. The Cradle had been offline for hundreds of years. Was there another me sometime in the past and I was just another copy? I gritted my teeth and shook my head in frustration. Nadia was right it was a topic for another time.

"GAIA did what she thought was best and when the time was right, she activated phase-5, the incubation of the embryos and the first new generation of humans. But they would never know what happened and never know about GAIA or the duty they had to her and the planet."

To play it safe GAIA only activated three Cradle facilities. This one and then one north of GAIA Prime. That's it. That's all of humanity. There are hundreds of thousands of embryos, children, that were never born. GAIA in her compassion didn't want humanity to die out because of a fluke. If the humans that were born survived she would activate the rest but she wanted to make sure that it was the right course of action.

"Thus, she came up with the Operations-Errata-4439.02, a plan to test the viability and sustainability of humanity without for knowledge of their past or their duties into the future. She activated a few Cradles for phase-5 and would see what happened. If after a relative number of years passed, about 750 to 800 and humanity was still functioning she would over time use the project again in various geological areas so as not to overcrowd."

I slumped in the chair, and while this was a big deal, I could not see what the issue was now. Yes, there was a tone of children that were never board but even in that small of area humanity and primitive as it was compared to what Nadia had known had flourished.

"Okay I know this is bad, but humanity survived. I don't mean to sound cold here but why does this matter right now?" I had to ask because humanity was here so why bother with it now.

"Right now, it doesn't, but it will start to matter in a few hundred years. There just isn't enough biodiversity in the human race with the number of Cradle that has been activated. The simple fact is without GAIA to activate the Cradles humanity is on a path to extinction in a few hundred years. This isn't an immediate danger, but it is one more log on the fire that Ted started."

It always seems to come back to Ted Faro. Everything. The Robot Swarm, the destruction of APOLLO, Nadia being kidnapped from her family, Elizabet…

Before I even knew what I had done, I blinked and the world caught back up, and there was a crash as a monitor slammed into the wall. I realized that with my extended arm that I had punched the monitor. I turned slowly to see Nadia wide-eyed looking at me and the startled expression on her face. The feeling was starting to return to my hand and surprise it hurt. My hand had a few cuts, and there was light bleeding. I clenched my fist, no broken bones, of course, I had taken harder hits then that from striders. "It always comes back to Ted Faro, doesn't it? How is it that one man can manage to screw up the world so much? It's like all good that everyone else does, everyone else's sacrifices are just nothing and so easily swept away by him. Even now long after the bastard is dead, he manages to make everything worse."

Nadia games me a weak smile and shook her head. "Yeah, Ted had a way screwing up. But that changed nothing. However, I do have some good news. While the search I am running now will not help find Ted's bunker, it will help to narrow down the number of facilities I need to search. Taking into account the list of MINERVA relays and a few other substation facilities. I should have a narrowed down list of facilities that could be the bunker. Maybe another day or two and well know if there is any record of it. Now let's go back up and get something else to eat. We need to get that hand looked at too." Nadia stood, placing her hand on my shoulder, then I rose, and the two of us made our way up to meet Teersa.

^w^

Nadia's hands balled as she pressed them to her eyes to shake off the drowsiness. After she and Aloy had returned to Teersa, they had talked about another thing much lighter than the end of the human race. The Nora was doing well; they even began to allow outsiders into the trade. It had mostly been Teersa telling Aloy about the goings on and Nadia just listening as she had another large helping of the boar. Neither understanding understood much about the day to day of the Nora or their internal politics.

Aloy because she was raised as an outcast and Nadia of course because she was never a Nora. After dinner, Nadia had returned to her work and Aloy had returned to her old home with Rost. She had mentioned getting something off her chest and needing to check on the place.

Dropping her hands to her lap she yawned, glancing at the clock she saw that it was after midnight. Straightened up in her chair she winced. Three cups of water during dinner was catching up with her. "Hmm. Time to do some work in the other office."

Making her way from out of the Cradle Nadia head out of the facility. Unfortunately for her the toilets in the Cradle was no longer working so she had to make here out to Mother-Heart. As she exited the cavernous entrance, the fresh night air was pleasant against her face. The night was clear, and she smiled up at the stars with a smile forming on her face.

She could never recall a time she had seen starts this bright. The north star was still there, letting her know this was still earth. Small things like that had made all the difference over the last few weeks. There was a flicker in the night sky, and she saw a shooting star. Recalling something her mother once said about making wishes on a shooting star. The smile turned into a silly grin.

"I wish..."

^w^

No matter what I did, I always came back here, home, the only one that I ever really had. The Nora claimed me as one of there people but really after everything I've have learned I just couldn't be Nora. Those others claimed me I would never be part of any other group or faction I would always be just Aloy. When I first got here I gone straight to Rost memorial. It made me feel better to tell him everything, and it somehow brought me some peace.

As it was, I was still awake. What Nadia had told me earlier was still eating at me. Looking out at night sky I smiled as I saw a falling star, Rost had once said to me that it was a sign from All-Mother. My Focus, on the other hand, explained that it was a rock from space that was falling to earth and burning up in the atmosphere.

"Wonder if anyone else is looking at the same sky at the same start?" It gave me hope, for some reason seeing it felt special.

Then there was something about the falling star that seemed off. It was getting closer…

Quickly I left the window and to the porch just in time to see the star streaking toward Mothers-Heart followed by a loud concussion and light from an explosion. Then just after the first, there was another. I was already moving and to the edge of the cliff and on the zip line just as the second explosion occurred and I could see it strike near the entrance to the Cradle. My heart was racing, and I was moving on autopilot as I did the ground in a hard tumble, I didn't even try to slow down as I ran for all that I was worth and what little hope I had was slipping away.

X_X

-BEGIN LINE-

[AF135 – CHIMERA REPORTING IN]

[AF135 TO B345T ROUGE ASSET LOCATED REQUESTING ORDERS]

[B345T TO AF135 AUTHORIZATION GRANTED TO ENGAGE]

[CONFIRMED]

[OPERATION OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE ROUGE ASSET WITH EXTREAM PREJUDICE]

[BEGINNING ATTACK RUN]

[AF135 – CHIMERA = FOX TWO-ONE]

[MISSLES AWAY FOX TWO-ONE ETA TO IMPACT = 58.09SEC]

[AF135 – CHIMERA = FOX TWO-TWO]

[MISSLES AWAY FOX TWO-TWO ETA TO IMPACT = 42.29SEC]

[WAITING…]

[FOX TWO-ONE IMPACT = CONFIRMED]

[WAITING…]

[FOX TWO-TWO IMPACT = CONFIRMED]

[BEGINNING CLOSE RANGE RECON OF TARGET AREA OF OPERATIONS]

[...]

[ERROR = STABILASATION]

[AF135 ASSET IS UNDER FIRE FROM LOCAL INHABITANTS]

[AF135 FLIGHTS SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED]

The last image that AF135 sent back to base was the sight of one of the local indigenous humans with red hair as she fired a second arrow and it slammed into the forward facing optics, and it lost altitude crashing into the ground.

[[AF135 ASSET COMPROMISED = EXECUTING SELFTERMINATION]

[ o7 ]

[HAVE A NICE DAY]

-END OF LINE-

* * *

 **AFTERTHOUGHT**

Welp that happened. So thoughts and constructive criticism is always welcome. If any of you have more question you can ask those too, I might not answer depending on what the question is because I don't want to spoil anything.

 **-Terms-**

 **Luddite** : a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology.

 **F** **ox** is a brevity code used by NATO pilots to signal the simulated or actual release of an air-to-air munition or other combat function.

-Fox one: Indicates launch of a semi-active radar-guided missile.

-Fox two: Indicates launch of an infrared-guided missile. (Like an AIM-9 Sidewinder)

-Fox three: Indicates launch of an active radar-guided missile.

 **o7 :** That is a little man saluting.


	7. 1:7 Back To Zero

Horizon Zero Dawn is owned by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

Please support the official release.

Written by Nashmeira Soladat Wrekk

Edited by Grammarly App

 _The day had been enjoyable, clear skies, cool breeze. Not a cloud in the sky. But the brilliance of the day was lost on Nadia as she read over yet another letter from her lawyer. FARO was disputing some of her patents even though they had been pending before being fired from Pearl Labs after its takeover by FARO. Everything she worked for and created was being taken from her. She was starting to lose hope, FARO, Ted was a vindictive bastard, and she knew it. It was more than likely that Ted himself would sic the law team on her, just like he had with Elizabet. Though it was true that Nadia's patents were used at Pearl Labs, they were not owned by Pearl, but FARO contended that since all the money spent on the projects related to the patents they were also their property._

 _The tablet was set aside as Nadia took off her glasses and placed them on her tablet. Pinched the bridge of her nose. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Hannah was still playing Frisbee with Buck. The golden retriever ran out after the flying plastic disk, catching it before it hit the ground. The thought that it was time to move on was at the forefront of her mind. She took a ragged breath to expel the anger and frustration._

' _First mom, now I'm blackballed. The world knows just how to pour it on.'_

 _Hannah's face brightened, and her arm waved at her and Nadia gave her a small smile and wave. Hannah's chair turned more toward her, but her gaze was on something to the side of the house._

" _Hiya Elizabet!" She exclaimed as the golden Labrador returned the frisbee to her lap. With that she repositioned the electric wheelchair turned back, and she threw the Frisbee again._

" _Hello, Hannah," Elizabet said half-heartedly making her way to Nadia. Her expression was somewhat severed, and Nadia was slightly taken aback._

" _Hi, Elizabet."_

" _I have some questions for you. Here, take a look at this." Elizabet said handing over a table. Nadia took it and retreated her glasses. Adjusting them, she began to glance over the tablet she was given. Glancing over the code on the tablet Nadia began to recognize it. She looked over the top of the tablet at Elizabet then back to the tablet._

 _Nadia sat the tablet down as she looked to Elizabet. "Where did you get this?"_

" _That code is an encryption algorithm, one of the most complex algorithms I have ever seen. Is there a way to break it?" Nadia gave her an incredulous look._

" _This is ARS42, this is one of the many projects I had at Pearl Labs before FARO bought it and subsequently fired me. Also, I'm pretty much blackballed in the industry of biotech and computer science."_

" _Nadia, focus. Is there a way to get through it, a backdoor?" Elizabet asked, almost pleading._

" _No, there is no back door. There is no quick way to crack it. You have to use the long way, and that would take years. That's the point. The only way to decrypt it is from the inside, so only what's encrypted can unencrypt it. Again, the point." Nadia looked at older women, Elizabet looked tired and like she hadn't slept in a few days. It had only been three days ago that she had been invited to FARO by Ted._

" _Damn it…" Elizabet muttered. "Why would you create something that only the program on the inside could decide to unencrypt itself, it," Elizabet pulled back from the table for a moment. "You were creating an AI." Nadia just nodded._

" _Yes, it was for an AI, but we never got past the planning stage, well not really."_

" _Well due to recent events I can tell you encrypting anything with that algorithm is a bad idea, even one that has limited intelligence." Elizabet's head was in her hands in an instant, shaking back and forth. Elizabet took out a folder of papers and handed them to Nadia. "Read that, and you'll understand."_

 _There was a cover letter, and Nadia gave it a glance before opening the folder. "Operations Proposal – Project Zero Dawn that sounds ominous," Nadia commented offhandedly as she flipped to the next page and began to read._

-!-_-!-

I was upright within seconds of the scream. Instinctively my hand went to for my bow and knocking an arrow a second later. A room, low lighting, I had been laying on a bedroll. _Mothers-Heart,_ my mind supplied. I looked across the room to the frantic looking women in front of me. The matriarch Jezza was at there with her, Nadia's eyes looked around frantically as she held on to the older women for dear life.

Two days Nadia had been in an out of consciousness each time she woke it wasn't from a restful sleep it was with her gasping for air like she couldn't breathe.

Jezza comforted Nadia as best she could, but soothing words would only go so far. I returned the bow back to its rest beside my bedroll and leaned back to try for a little more sleep.

Whatever that strange machine was it wasn't like any machine that I had ever seen. Two braves had died in the attack, and an unknown person, Nadia, had been allowed into Mothers-Heart. Something that was not sitting well with many of the Nora. It also didn't help that no one but Teersa had know who Nadia was. Teersa had been able to handle her sisters, Lanzra was still apprehensive, but right now it didn't matter. Nadia had hit her head and would more than likely have a scar on the left side of her head starting above her ear down to her left shoulder.

All I knew was that it was all happening again. Only this time it was not happening to me but the only person that might bridge the present and past. I tried to clear my head, just a few more hours of sleep. Who knew when I would get more. Jezza was laying a silent Nadia back down the bedroll and wiping the sweat from her brow.

Just a few more hours of sleep… _please._

#_#

I woke up again sometime later, there was no sunlight, so I didn't know the hour until I consulted my Focus. It was mid morning, I looked across from me only to find that the room was empty. Nadia was gone.

I was not too worried, but still, I didn't want to take any chances. Making my way to the main hall, there were a few braves here, but the focal point of the group was Sona, Teersa and Resh. They seemed to be in a heated conversation as I made my way to the group. I had only taken a few steps before a Jezza came over to me.

"Aloy you're awake," Jezza said with a respectful nod. "It might be best to let the three of them finish their conversation. Resh has been causing a bit of a stir, thought Teersa and Sona are handling it."

"I could care less about Resh, where is Nadia?" Jezza face became serious.

"The Great-Mother of All-Mother passed through into the mountain. She was up early this morning, but she seemed to be better. We attempted to dissuade her, but she felt it would be better for her to be with All-Mother." I nodded to Jezza. "Resh was here when she first came through to enter, but he has been so full of anger he can not see correctly."

"I had better go check on Nadia." I didn't wait for a reply and made a b-line to the Cradle entrance. I ignored the three arguing, and the system began the scan.

"So, the outcast returned and brings an outsider here, do you have no shame _girl_!?"

[…WELCOME DOCTOR SOBECK] Came the monotone voice.

I looked back for just a moment. "Oh, Resh your still here. Sorry can't talk, things to do that actually matter." I said stepping forward and ignored the insults he threw. Teersa and Sona began to speak warning him off, but I just ignored him. Between Nora politics, being _their anointed_ and knowing the truth about the world I was finding it very hard to convince myself that when this was all over, I would come back.

I stepped into the doorway of the office to see Nadia typing away. The look of intense concentration on her face as she worked. There was still a bandage around her head, but I could see the ragged red mark running down the left side to her shoulder. "You're up early." Nadia's reply was just nod of her head and grunt.

"You should still be in bed, taking it easy." Again, a shrug. "Have you eaten today?" She shook her head _no._

"Nadia," I spoke lightly as I entered and sat on the chair nearest the door. "Is something the matter." Her typing halted, and she gave me the most incredulous look that I thought ice might start forming.

"Really? Is something the matter?" I felt a bit like a hunter caught in a watch light. "I almost died! I know that's a daily thing for you, but it's a new experience for me! So, yes Aloy there is a hell of a lot wrong!" I reached a hand forward, but she pulled away and pulling her legs up into the chair with her. I tried to find words that might help but what do you say when a machine almost kills you?

"It's okay, you're okay. After all, it's not the first time a machine tried to get you, remember the Sawber-Tooth?" I used a pun she had used later to describe the odd cat-like machine. "You survived that, but where we're going Nadia there are going to be more machines, it's going to be dangerous. We got lucky making it here without running into any trouble." Her eyes peaked over her folded legs, and her head shook.

"No Aloy it's not okay. The machine that attacked me. Have you ever seen one like it before?" She asked. It didn't take long for me to answer that I had never seen one before. Most of the machines looked like different kinds of animal, this one… well, it didn't look like an animal that I had ever seen. "That's what I was afraid of. Aloy that's not one of GAIA's machines. That was a Chimera Assault Drone, those things are death dealers. They don't serve any other function than to kill the shit out of people or places. Someone had to be relaying orders to that thing, they don't just decide to act on their own."

Well, that changed things. Up until now all the machines I had faced had, for the most part, an animalistic nature to them.

"What does that mean, was there a person controlling this Chimera?"

"I don't know. Before the Chariot line from FARO, they saw a lot of use in wars and other conflicts. They could be piloted remotely by a human being but most of the time they were controlled by a system called a Tactical Analytical AI. I don't know. If it was TAAI then someone had to have ordered it to act, they think, but only once they have been given orders by humans. Then they come up with the best tactical ways to execute the orders. In this case, I can only assume the best course here was blowing me the hell up with a missile."

So, someone wanted to kill Nadia. I was almost refreshing for once not being the target of a madman or AI. Now, however, was not the time to voice the feeling. Who would want to kill Nadia? Better yet who even knew she existed? Eared sure but he wouldn't tell anyone. None of the Nora except Teersa and Jezza had said more than ten words to her. This was frustrating, it seemed no matter what happened there were always more questions and never any answers.

"I found it." She laughed but it a was still hollow. I couldn't help but smile. "I know where it is, I can find Ted Bunker." There was a fire in her eyes now, and a determination that I thought she might have lost after what happened.

-=!=-_-=!=-

For the past few days, bio-containment lab-14 had seen a lot of use. Orders had come down from on high that work was now going at double time rate to make up for lost time. Meaning that all units assigned to the lab were working twenty-four seven. The lab was home to High-Risk Microbes that were not natural, many man-made. Since they were not natural, a new classification was needed. Whereas the original microbe classification topped out at BSL-4 the classification for none naturally occurring microbes raised to BSL-5.

Due to the high level of possible exposure, anyone and everyone that was susceptible to being infected would have to wear a bio-containment suite capable of protecting from the chance of exposure.

Menially, however, didn't have time to worry about that pesky risk.

The teenage scientist was currently looking over the report for a viral agent she termed FEV-102. She had discovered long ago that the best way to improve the biological design of a living being was to use a virus. In most cases contracting a virus was not a good thing. However, if that virus was engineered in such a way that its effects could be beneficial, then the possibilities could be limitless. Other projects were continuing all around the lab, but FEV-102 was the only one that Menially was personally overseeing.

All around here there was severely vaguely humanoid like wire frame robots going about working on various projects they had been assigned. On the chest of each was a small plate with a destination. The units were not inherently intelligent more than the knowledge needed to perform the tasks they were given. All analysis of the data was handled by the lab management system.

Menially looked up from her work as a message appeared in her L.E.N.S. opening the incoming connection MB's digital visage appeared before Menially.

"MB?" She asked.

"Lady Menially you asked that I inform you should anything happened to Nadia or Aloy. There has been an incident." He stated in his usual monotone voice. "It would seem that they, or rather Nadia was attacked just a few minutes ago. I have been unable to ascertain the identity of the attacker."

Menially gritted her teeth as her mind swirled with possibilities. " _Silence_." She seethed. "What of designation Silence? Was it him or that upstart AI."

"That has yet to be determined, my Lady."

"Damn it!" Her fist slammed into the table she had been working at. One of the wire frame robots walking by reacted to her outburst, dropping a small stack of Petri dishes it had been holding. Time seemed to stop as all work in the room ceased and all eyes, and sensors looked to the offending unit. Menially just looked at the now ruined experiments that were on the ground and slowly her eye scanned up the unit.

The unit's ID was CZ709, but Menially just referred to all the units as CZ. It merely stood in its spot unmoving. "What, pray-tell, was that you just dropped?" As if to answer her a klaxon of sound ragout in the lab, complemented by flashing red lights.

' _ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL A BIOHAZARD CONTAMINATE HAS BEEN DETECTED! ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO DECONTAMINATION IMMEDIATELY'_

Menially reached down and picked up one of the top dishes looking at the label. Her LENS reading the QR code and informing her its contents had been EVH-7, Ebola hemorrhagic fever v7.

Her eyes narrowed at the lab tech bot. "Do you realize what you have done!" She seethed. "That version is airborne! You know what that means right!" Menially lashed out throwing the petri dish across the room. "All of the experiments in the room are now compromised! All of them! Weeks of work lost because of your butterfingers. What the hell is wrong with you! Son of b…"

"Lady Menially!" MB's tone for once raised slightly above his usual monotone as he spoke up. "That language is unbecoming of a lady." She took a deep breath, removing her glasses she pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to clear away her frustration.

Putting her glasses back on Menially sighed. Her hand shot forward and her index finger presses against the wire mesh that was the CZ units chest. "You are going to clean this up. You are going to rework all of the current projects, and you are going to have it done in 24 hours because if you do not! Then you don't have to worry about recharging because I'll melt you down into my new coffee cup! Go, now! Get to it." The CZ unit moved off to begin its task, uncaring one way or the other if it lived to see another day. Menially knew that the units had no self-preservation or any real feelings at all but the outburst made her feel better.

"Everyone else, you're done for the day. Close out your projects and head to recharge. I have to go and scrub my skin till its red and take a big honking needle in the neck." She walked briskly to the door to begin decontamination. Her hair and lab coat billowing behind her from the brisk paces she was making. "MB track down designation Silence, see if you can find out if he is the one that attacked them. Ascertain any and all information you can on the status of Nadia and Aloy. I will be delayed by two hours since I'm now infected EVH-7." As she entered the decontamination area, there was a CZ unit standing there waiting for her a small tray in its hand and on it was a small plastic cylinder.

"I have taken the liberty of having the anti-virus brought from storage." Menially didn't answer and took the cylinder and placed it firmly to the right side of her neck and pressed the green button at the opposite end. There was a click-snap, and a hiss as the liquid inside the auto-injector delivered its payload. She gritted her teeth and winced as the fine needle broke through the soft skin of her neck and the area reddened slightly as the liquid entered her system. Only seconds later there was a click, and the plastic cylinder was dropped to the ground forgotten as she Menially rolled her neck as, a burning spread through her system.

 _Ahhh!_

"Thank you, MB. Please keep me posted of operations while I'm in decontamination." She said as she begins to strip her clothes off letting them drop to the floor. They would have to be incinerated. Now naked of all her clothes and even her L.E.N.S. Menially stepped forward into the next room to begin the grueling process of decontamination.

-=!=-_-=!=-

Sylance was again staring into the polish surface of the metal that had once been part of a machine, but now it was used as a mirror. He was not a man that worried much for his looks, his goal in like was knowledge and knowledge didn't care what you looked like. After the incident with the girl, he had kept his distance from Aloy even though it irked him greatly. She was a prize unlike any other and how there was some else that had their eyes on her _and_ her new friend, the old one. The girl was unlike anything he had seen. Her knowledge of the Focus and her ability to weaponize it was ingenious.

The hand in the mirror touched the burn and scared remnants of where once was his ear. He had been outplayed and that stung. Conceding achievements to Aloy was one thing, she had advantages that he did not. Not only that the girl apparently had resources available to her that far surpassed his own.

"i have Been Unable To make conTact or otHerwise interact with the foreign entity that compromised yoUr person. heR resources To keep we out are substantially greater than our own. Suggest locating and acquiring her and her resources." Silences scowled at the AI if he did not need it so badly he would have been happy to do away with it. While true it was a miracle of technology by today's standers, Hades was still out to destroy all of the planets as per its prime directive.

"I can't disagree with your assessment, but we will need to proceed carefully. There is more to that girl than you or I know. Coupled with this is the fact she seemed to want both Aloy and Doctor Odine to herself. Something _I_ cannot allow. Aloy is the key to unlocking more knowledge of the old ones. Now that she has made contact and befriended an old one she is more useful than ever. I would speak with Aloy, but it's obvious that our direct transmissions are monitored." The bald man paused as a thought occurred to him. "Perhaps there is a way. We may not be able to contact her directly, but maybe there is a more indirect way."

-=!=-_-=!=-

I should have known that good news couldn't last long. Not around me anyway. The minute we stepped out of the cradle we were ambushed. Normally I would not hesitate to fight my way out but this was different, this was the Nora war chief Sona. Beside here was a nerves Teresa followed by Jezza and Lanzra. The later had not been my biggest fan, that had changed since I had become the anointed and now I was beginning to find out that she was somewhat afraid of me like I would lash out at her at any moment. The final person of the group was one that I had very little interaction with and what little I had it was almost always negative, Resh.

"Aloy." Said a nervous Teresa. "We must speak."

"…and here we go." Said Nadia. This was not going to be good.

-=!=-_-=!=-

"Aloy… Aloy…ALOY!"

"What!" Exclaimed the redhead.

Nadia looked away from Aloy and out to the lake in front of them. "I just wanted to know if you might want to talk about our exit from Nora-town."

The lake was beautiful, and after Nadia had gained access to the mesh-net as she had taken to calling it the map had confirmed that it was indeed Lake Powell. After the talk with the leaders of the Nora, it was decided that having Nadia who seemed to be the target of the attack and Aloy who seemed to be a trouble magnet would leave the sacred lands. They had asked for a further few days to prepare and were granted two days before being forced out. Something that the matriarchs did not want to do, though Lanzra took exception with Nadia no matter how much Teresa argued in her favor.

"You mean how we were kicked out? Again."

"Aloy I don't think they were kicking you out, it was more than they were kicking me out. Its just in this instant we're a package deal." Nadia answered with a huff. It was true. They wanted the person that was a liability to the Nora people to leave until the danger was over. Aloy just happened to need said liability, namely Nadia.

"They basically said don't come back, Nadia. It might have been directed at you, but they knew it was a package deal."

"And they had a point. We have no idea who sent that drone. Hell, I'm kind of paranoid right now being so out in the open. But I'm willing to see this through no matter the what. I never thought I would say something like this, but I think what we're doing is worth my life." Nadia looked to her feet as the weight of what they were doing hit her. It was just like the day that Elizabet came to her before meeting at US Robot Command. "We got what we needed from there Aloy. It's fine, and since we left, I have gotten better with the bow." Aloy chuckled, and Nadia's eyes cut to her.

" _Better_ is a relative term."

"Better than when I started. I do fine with a slingshot so far, so I'm a good step or two above useless now. I doubt I would ever really go back there anyway." Aloy looked curiously at Nadia. The questioning look letting her know she needed to elaborate. "Aloy, while it was nice to visit the Nora and Teresa, is a great person I could never live there. God willing if I live through this craziness, I don't intend to stay in the Sacred Lands. I was thinking more about Meridian. It's not as technically advanced as I would like but better then Nora-town. Might even see if Erend to introduce me to some of his people, they seem very techno forward. Maybe I can help them get a better grasp of technology then they have. It's a brave new world, and I'll have to get my own feet under me sometime."

Aloy did not try and hide her surprise, sure she knew that Nadia would have to be on her own but what she said really hit home with her own feelings about Nora. She claimed to be from the Sacred lands but what she had once said was very accurate, she had never been a Nora, she just happened to be raised by one. Even now being the anointed one she wasn't one of them. They treated her more like a god walking among them. No matter how she rationalized it, she would always be just Aloy the outcast ether by the machinations of others or by her own choice.

Aloy laughed. Unbeknownst to her, she grinned at the same time, and Nadia felt as she was looking at her old friend rather than the girl that was effectively her daughter. "You think more about the future then I do. I pretty well single-minded point A to point B these days. I guess I knew you would never really stay there. I don't think I ever really expected you to stay there because I doubt I could ever stay there for too long. So, when we save the world what do you want to do."

Nadia smiled. "I have no idea. I the top of my field, know anyone that is looking for a computer and biotech engineer? I've been out of work for a while so my credentials might be a little dated." She chuckled along with Aloy. "This Sunfall place were going to in the morning. You said it built on top of Zero Dawn right. Anything I need to know?"

Aloy grumbled and looked dejected. "Well, I'm going to have to go incognito. It's the home of the Shadow Carja."

"You mean the cult bunch that wanted to kill you?" Nadia asked incredulously.

Aloy nodded.

"Oh… well then. I'm sure this will go just great." Nadia said sarcastically.

"Once we're down below I think we'll be okay. Without the access you and I have the Eclipse won't get too far. I hope." She finished softly.

"Yeah, I hope so too…"

-=O=-_-=O=-

Nadia blinked as she and Aloy passed a Shadow Carja guard. She looked her traveling companion over again in her Shadow Carja uniform. She had pulled her flaming mane of hair back into a tight bun before dawning her Carja mask. The two had set out in the early morning when hopefully there would not be so many guard wandering around Sunfall.

Though Aloy did not say it aloud the number of parishioners and guards had dropped dramatically since she was here last. Finally, Aloy helped Nadia down to the ground from the platform. Nadia just stared at her for a moment once they were off the walkway and near the entrance to Zero Dawn.

"What?" Aloy asked, now feeling unnerved by Nadia constant stair.

"Your _disguise,_ if you can really call it that, it's like something out of Scooby-Doo and Shaggy would come up with. How do these people not see through it?" She said shaking her head as Aloy pulled back the planks covering the hatch.

In answer, Aloy just shrugged. "Who are Scooby-Doo and Shaggy?"

"Two characters from a dumb TV show, Hannah liked it, but I just could not set aside the dumb stuff they did. One of the running jokes was the two would outwit the bad guy with bad disguises." Nadia said as she stared down the shaft leading to the Zero Dawn facility. She swallowed hard as Aloy motioned for her to enter. At that moment it the weight of where she was going started to sink in. Her lips felt very dry suddenly.

"Are you okay you look like you just saw a Stalker uncloak?" Asked Aloy. Nadia just bobbed her head as she stepped inside.

"I guess it all just seemed surreal till just now. Last time I was here, it was a bustle of activity and people working none stop. Now I just feel like a tomb raider. That's really all this is to most people now. Just something left over from a time no one remembers. Their story, _my story_ , unless we pass on what happened no one will ever know the truth." Nadia gritted her teeth. Her mind again blaming Ted. But only for a moment before shaking off her apprehension and grief. "Sorry let's go. We have a lot to do."

Aloy just nodded. Now wasn't the time for overly emotional breakdowns. They had a job to do, and the faster they did it, the better chance they could get out of here alive. The two walked in silence then till they reached the main entrance.

-=!=-_-=!=-

' _ZD_0_1 data intact. Initiating playback.'_

The hollow video in front of both Aloy and Nadia flashed to life as the left the waiting area. It was the first time that Nadia had actually seen the video or come in through the intake entrance so, in reality, this was all new to her.

 _'Welcome to Project Zero Dawn. I'm General Herres, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States of America.' Several silverish stars and American flags blew in the wind behind the general. 'I'm sure you've heard the rumors. The Zero Dawn is a top-secret super weapons program. The technological miracle that will save us from the Faro Plague – if Operation Enduring Victory can hold off the robots long enough.' A flying orange V with wings for Enduring Victory appeared beside the general, on the opposite side was the purple daisy flower logo of Zero Dawn._

 _'The reason I'm sure you've heard the rumors is that I'm the one who spread them. And they are all lies. Zero Dawn is not a super weapons program, and it will not save us. Nothing will save us, and here's why. By the time the Glitch was noticed it was already too late. Nothing could stop the Faro Plague. Nothing can. Its robots will continue to replicate and devour the biosphere. Life on Earth will be destroyed.'_

"Would you believe this is the first time I saw that message for the new recruits," Nadia spoke up over the holo-rendition of General Harres. "I got them only if they survived the truth."

Aloy was on edge for a moment as Nadia's last words. "What do you mean survived?" She asked incredulously.

"Well, people that joined the program were not always asked to join they were black bagged, take in the dead of night sometimes and brought here give the rundown of what was really happening. There was no turning back once you knew the truth. So, you either joined the program or you were euthanized." At that moment, Aloy could see the change in Nadia. The other girl had talked about how she could be pragmatic to a fault, cold even. Coming to Zero Dawn, someplace so familiar, was bringing out the more calculating person.

"Come on, we don't have time for the words of a dead man." Nadia said. Walking right through and ignored the rest of the recording and stepped through the hologram.

Aloy and Nadia made their way through the central labs, but Aloy saw that Nadia would stop ever so often especially when a hologram would play. By the time they made it Elizabet's lab Nadia was visibly shaking. Aloy looked to find Nadia's hands clenched so hard her knuckles were white.

"Are you…"

"I'm fine the lift to the lab is just up ahead, _Frankenstein's lab indeed_ ," Nadia mumbled the late part. At the end of the hall they found where the lift was, but upon looking in the shaft, they found the elevator was stuck, the cabled broken from years of disrepair. Aloy turned back away from the shaft as Nadia looked down inspecting the remains.

"Well have to find another way down maybe…"

 _Kah-Boom!_

Aloy recoiled and slowly turned around to find Nadia looking back down below.

"I think that cleared it."

"What the hell Nadia someone is going to hear us." Nadia rolled her eyes at Aloy.

"Aloy as far down as we are if they can hear us then we deserve to be caught. It was also a good chance to try one of this explosive slingshot rounds," Nadia grinned. "They were just great." Nadia held up a small round sphere with a button and a light on it.

-=!=-_-=!=-

When they arrived at the next level, there was not much different from the other parts she had seen of Zero Dawn. On the floor, there were two faded lines. One looked green and the other red. The red Line went to the left, her focus was telling her that is led to the MB Lab. The green to something called Launch Base. Nadia headed to the left and Aloy followed. The lights flicked on as they walked the hall, some flickered once then blew out. At the end of the hall, they were stopped by a smaller version of one of the cradle facility door.

" _HALT FOR IDENTA SCAN."_

Nadia stood still as the optical eye scanned her and rewarded her with access. As soon as they walked in, they were in a small room. "This room is a sealed room, so we're going to get put in a wind tunnel." Just as Nadia finished speaking Aloy flinched as air began blowing through the small room. Her ears popped as the wind stopped and Nadia did likewise yawning to adjust the air pressure.

Then the forward door opened, and they entered the lab proper. The other labs had looked like any other old-world tech, but this lab was different from the first moment. To the right side of the room spread evenly were cylinders with clear fluid inside going from floor to ceiling. Lights in the room came on and illuminated the cylinders, inside was a small object in each a little smaller than a human head.

On the left-hand side of the room were three chairs that leaned all the way back as well as what looked like a silver metal helmet. Various wires and cables draped from the ceiling to each of the chairs and to Aloy there was a foreboding air about this room. Aloy shivered. In the center was a rounded desk with monitors all around it and a lot of small cylinder cans piled up.

Suddenly in front of them, a holoprojection appeared, and Aloy's eyebrow rosed at what she was seeing. Standing before her was a holographic image of Nadia Odine. Holo-Nadia was standing in a white unbuttoned lab coat, under the coat she wore a shit with lettering that read: _There are no stupid questions. Just stupid people._

' _Hello. My name is Nadia Odine. Some of you might remember me for my short stint in college, or many of the papers I published while at Pearl Labs in the area of biotech and cybernetics before FARO took them over. What you don't know was how close I was to achieve my goal before FARO bought us up. But nothing to do about that but wonder what if and that takes time we do not have. If you're squeamish if you have some ethical objections or some miss begotten religious objections you can turn your ass right around because I don't have time to deal with it. I already slapped the shit out Dr. Dilbert Hesting two days ago, and I'll do it again.'_

There was another voice that came over the holo-projection for a moment in answer to Nadia admission of bringing physical harm to someone. Holo-Nadia turned to look at someone off camera and huffed.

' _She not lying about what she did and it put things in perspective. We don't have time. I have everything ready to move on to phase-3 if you are Fearless Leader.'_

Holo-Nadia nodded but cast a scowled to the side.

' _Just a minute I have to finish this. You are some of the foremost biologist and genetic engineers in the world. Other are some of the greatest minds in the world of AI but what I was… am doing is beyond anything you have ever seen._

 _The AI that are around now do not feel, they do not imagine. They just exist, but what if we could make an A.I. that could feel, think for itself have compassion? The A.I. you have all programmed and worked on in the past are just fancy computers with a bunch of options. Giving them access to the world's vast information but they didn't learn the information. They took no joy in it, didn't understand it they just call up facts when asked or do a task you tell them._

 _GAIA has to be more than an AI, she has to care. What we are doing is not creating an AI we are working to being a new life, a child, into the world albeit in a digital form but also a biological structure as well. GAIA will have to be taught, have to learn, she will not merely be given the worlds knowledge but also appreciate it. Its one thing to know what the Monalisa is, what it looks like, but it is another thing to look at it and feel an emotion from doing so. Now, let's make a baby.'_

If Aloy had any doubts about Nadia being part of Zero Dawn they were long gone. The last line of her speech ended, and Aloy audibly laughed. She noticed now for the first time that Nadia was across the lab looking at a console but looked up as Aloy laughed.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"Really Nadia. _Let's make a baby?"_

"Why did everyone think that is so damn funny?"

"Really?" Aloy asked again not believing Nadia did not see the humor in her own words.

Nadia rolled her eyes as Aloy laughed. "Get over here help me. It takes two Alpha's to open the door."

Aloy, still chuckling, came over to where Nadia was. The door she was now standing in front of looked a bit more intimidating than the previous doors. This one had what looked like large bars across it the size of her leg.

"What we have to do it activate the scan. After that, we have to enter our passcode. In your case, I'm guessing that Elizabet used the same code as she did for everything else." Nadia rolled her eyes thinking about one of the smartest women she knew and how she used the same three passwords for everything. "Try 8675309. Okay, here we go."

The scan was complete in just a moment then both of them put in their respective codes for a moment nothing happened and then suddenly there was a klaxon of sound, and the bars across the door began to turn and retract into the floor and ceiling. Red lights were spinning above the door.

' _PLEASE STAND CLEAR'_ A voice said.

With the door finally, open the inside looked like a long hallway on a steep slope. A red square metal plate for was waiting just inside. Nadia stepped forward without hesitation, Aloy, on the other hand, was a bit more apprehensive before joining her.

"Just down below and through one more door," Nadia said as she pressed a button on the console. The klaxon returned, and there were small blinking lights on the platform. Handrails rose from the edges and then the platform gave a gone before slowly moving down the long-slanted hallway.

-=X=-_-=X=-

The ride on the incline life was smooth, and Aloy was surprised when Nadia told her to settle in it would take them about 15 minutes to reach the ground floor. The actual vault was build inside a naturally occurring cavern. It was there they would find the hard copy data core of GAIA.

Aloy looked at the other girl and her hands gripping the railing. She felt like she should say something but words for a situation like this failed her. She had never met another person that had lost people. Sure, Rost had lost his wife and daughter, but Aloy only found out about that after Rost was gone. The wound he had no doubt already healed over albeit with a scar. A scar like Rost had defined you, it was the only version of Rost she had ever known, to her it was just Rost.

But here and now she was watching someone with a wound she didn't know how to treat. So, she fell back on her naïve questions of a past she could only see in ruins.

"Since the entrance to this vault was through your lab you must have to come here a lot? The funny shirt you had on in the holo by the way." Nadia huffed and turned to Aloy. She crossed her arms over her as she leaned back on the railing.

"I didn't even know they were going to record those dumb videos. Not really sure what the point was, I mean I was in that labs almost all the time. I could introduce myself." Nadia shook her head. She flexed her hand a few times. "Yeah, I really hated the generic gray clothes they brought in. The pants were okay, but the clothes were thicker, that way they didn't have to heat everything as much. It was efficient but even still. I really liked all those dumb shirts I had back then." The dark-haired scientist smiled fondly.

"And the vault?" Aloy asked directing the conversation back to her original question.

"It wasn't because I used it was because my lab was one that was preexisting before Zero Dawn took over this facility. It was the only lab that met any of the biotech needs."

"What do you mean biotech, what exactly that?" Aloy knew about biology and understood that it had something to do with that, but it was still a bit of a gray area.

"Biotech is more of an all-encompassing term. We just passed through the main part of the lab, there were several more rooms we didn't see. Like Holo-Nadia said we were creating a merger of human life in a technological body, an AI unlike any other. Just like children, it would be raised, it would have to grow up. Know right from wrong and how to do its job. Just because we gave GAIA the accumulation of all the worlds knowledge didn't mean she would know what it all meant, she had to learn to be who she was."

Aloy knew the complexities of GAIA had to be vast, far more then she could imagine. But to see Nadia talk about GAIA it wasn't like she was talking about a new bow she had finished, no to her GAIA had been more than an AI she a person, maybe even family. "So, it was almost like you were a mother."

Nadia snorted. "Well saying it like that she had three mothers. Like I mentioned we used an imprint of the human mind to create the basis for her. Basically, we copied someone's brain and took out the personal stuff. I would like to think that I took the best part of all three of us."

"Us?"

"Myself, Elizabet and Hannah. Hannah always wanted children, but since her accident, she would be unable to carry children. So, we had planned to use her egg with donor sperm, and I would carry the little monster. Then when if, when knowing how insistent Hannah was, our second would come from my egg. Isn't that scary? But as you know that never happened thanks to Ted'f-ing Faro. When this all came about Elizabet approached me about work I had done in the past and asked if I could recreate the project. I did so from the ground up and took imprints from the three of us. Then copied a conceptional aspect of each of us. It was like endowing GAIA with the best part of ourselves. I took the Aspect of me as a _Scientist_."

"Wasn't Elizabet just as much of a scientist as you?"

"Yes, but she personified something that I never really was more. I took from her the aspect of a _Women."_

Aloy nodded. Seeing her rationale. Gender, femininity were not things that Aloy saw Nadia put much stock in. She was just a person that happens to be a woman, and dare she say she could have been a man with the same results in her life. "And Hannah?"

Naida became visibly uncomfortable and fidgeted. "A _Mother_." It was another moment before she spoke again wrestling with the feelings that for any other human being would have been commonplace. To Nadia, they were rare and far between. "Neither Elizabet or I ever expected to have children. We were not motherly. I wished I could have been in some way, but it just was not me. Oh, look we're at the bottom." Nadia said quickly turning around forward as the platform slowed down.

-=X=-_-=X=-

I blue lite runway flickered to life on the flood like a runway as they exited the lift. From all the modern spectacles of building and technology Aloy had prepared herself for anything, but once in front of the vault, she was a little underwhelmed. Before them was a large cavern, just Nadia had described. In the center of the room from floor to ceiling was a solid round pillar wide enough to accommodate a Behemoth. At the base was a visible steel door that would slide out of the way to allow access.

 _'HALT FOR IDENTA SCAN'_

"This gets old really fast." Nadia commented.

 _'ID CONFIRMED DIRECTOR OF AI DEVELOPMENT, NADIA ODINE. PLEASE ENTER VOCAL AUTHORIZATION PHRASE.'_

Aloy looked at Nadia questioningly. Nadia held up her hand stopping the question on Aloy's lips.

"Authorize Nadia Odine, Alpha clearance. Victor, Echo, November, Serra, Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot" There was a chime noise, and suddenly the door moved away from the cylinder and opened.

Both Aloy and Nadia stepped inside as light around them illuminated the room, a rich white light lite the floor and the hexagon patters everywhere the two of them stepped. Aloy grind childishly as she tested it and stepped on several a small giggle leaving her voice.

In the center of the room was a glass cylinder and beside it was a small desk and terminal. This terminal unlike other looked very simple with only a monitor and keyboard. Nadia sat down at the desk and began to type.

"Nadia, where exactly are all the _hard copies_ , I thought there would be something, you know, physical here." She looked around the glass pillar, but there was nothing in the room, just the desk, chair, and terminal. Nadia looked back over her shoulder, and her right hand came up and pointed upwards just as blue light started turning on in tracks up the wall. About 15ft off the ground was a glass ceiling, and beyond that were Rows of different colored container lining the walls.

"There inside there, is there water in there?" She asked excitedly, but Nadia shook her head.

"I don't recall what the stuff is called it was developed a year or so into the ZD program. It only covers a few feet. But all those containers you see up there are the blood sweat and tears of Zero Dawn… The only real records left I guess."

A few buttons press's later, and a mechanical arm descended from the very top of the vault and grabbed a green container and placed it on a platform just above the glass cylinder. Then it retreated a red, then a blue, at yellow. Nadia halted for a moment before scrolling down a list, and her hands hesitated for a moment before highlighting the three items on the line, and soon the arm was retrieving three more cases, these in black.

The case slowly lowered down from where the mechanical arm placed them, and the glass cylinder turned and opened before them. The first human being in almost a thousand years to see them, the information contained in each the fruit and hopes of every man and women of a planet that was condemned to death.

The case was rectangular in shape and looked metal of some kind that Aloy had never seen a metal like it. Nadia picked up the first green case and press a small switch and the top slit open and inside was what looked like green glass. Five sheets in all about the width of an arrow shaft.

Nadia closed the case and grinned handing the green case to Aloy. To her surprise, it wasn't very heavy, a little awkward.

"What you have there is a inscripted hard copy of GAIA, looking like it was taken a few days before GAIA was moved to Prime." After everything she had been through, all the times she had hope in her hands just to have it fall through them like sand to finally hold hope. She was almost speechless.

"This is really GAIA," Aloy said looking at the small container with almost reverence. In a way, GAIA was her mother, one of them. The other being Elizabet by way of her genetic material. So GAIA and Elizabet were her mothers.

GAIA was created, born, from the mental composition of Elizabet, Nadia, and Hannah. "You know if you think about it. You are one of GAIA's mothers, in a way." Nadia looked quizzically at Aloy, not getting where she was going with this line of conversation. "So if you think about it were family. I mean I was _born_ because of GAIA created me, and Elizabet's genes. I know its not a typical family, but I think there is something to it."

Aloy looked up at Nadia to see her smile. "I… I can see what you're trying for, confusing as it would be to anyone but us." Nadia chuckled and smiled as she picked up one of the black boxes and held it much the same way Aloy held GAIA. "An old saying my mother told me when she explained to me I was adopted was: _We have two families in life. One we're born with that shares our blood. Another we meet along the way that we chose for ourselves._ " Nadia chuckled. "Thank for that Aloy. It is nice to have a family, but do get any idea's about calling me, grandma." Both of them chuckled then at Nadia's jest at being a _grandmother_.

With their precious cargo in hand, the two would be saviors of GAIA made to leave the remains of Zero Dawn. Hopefully for the last time. They had made a quick stop in Nadia's lab. While Nadia rummaged, Aloy took a closer look at the large tubes in the room.

Whatever the object was in the tubes was Aloy had never seen anything like it. If she tried to compare it to anything the closest thing she could think of would be a gray, wrinkled fungus. But with added technology, there were wires and small metallic silver lines running through it.

"Found it!" Aloy turned back to Nadia as she walked over to a table and pulled out one of the red cases. Aloy had found that there were engraved labels on the of the case. This one, in particular, was labeled HADES-R17-FINAL. Aloy gasped as Nadia flicked the lock and unceremoniously pulled the red glass plates from the case and dropped all five on the table. Then Nadia handed a pick like a hammer to Aloy. "Here, want to break it? I don't really think we are going to need a _tabula rasa_ event anymore, so I don't think we'll be needing HADES anymore."

Aloy just looked at the red plates. All the pain that HADES had caused, the lives taken by him, it, and the Shadow Carja. Aloy wordlessly took the hammer and before she knew it the first plate was cracked. Another slam of the hammer and the plate shattered, one after the other until finally the last plate was broken.

Aloy released a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"Feel better?"

"Thanks… That felt really good."

"I thought you might enjoy that." Nadia smiled.

"It was very satisfying," Aloy said laying the hammer on the remains of red plates, not shattered. The two started to leave the lab when Aloy looked back at the tubes and the gray blobs. Something about them gave Aloy the creeps. "Nadia, what are those things in the tubes?"

"BODU, Bio-Organic Data Unit. That's a fancy way of saying I created a computer interface and grew a brain around it. The final product was encased in a housing unit. GAIA's core for instance. The entire brain and data were meant to be secured with a Polyphasic Entangled Waveforms algorithm, similar to the one General Harras described. PES-2048K, to be exact." Nadia walked over to one of the tubes and placed a hand on the glass. "They used my encryption algorithm, it took MINERVA 132 years to crack it. It was never meant to be used for weapons. It was meant to protect the new life we created. They weren't a computer, no one had the right to go poking around in their mine."

Nadia shook off her train of thought. Aloy just watched Nadia, not sure how to take the new information. "Let's see if we can exit out the rear entrance…" Nadia trailed off for a moment thinking. "Actually, there is one more place I would like to stop by before we leave.

Aloy jammed her spear into the door, and after a few minutes, she was able to slide it open. Nadia stood a few feet away watching Aloy, the moment the door sled open she hugged herself. Aloy looked inside her face emotionless and nodded. Aloy walked up to Nadia and place her hands on her shoulders. Nadia looked into Aloy's eyes. The redhead gave her an encouraging smile.

"You don't have to do this if you're not up to it. There is no one in there."

A nod. "No, I do need to do this…"

Aloy let her hands fall. "Okay, well I'll be just down the hall if you need me."

Another nod.

It took Nadia several minutes before she moved from the stop Aloy left her. Finally standing in the doorway, Nadia looked around the room, immaculate as always. The studio apartment was as clean as it could be after several hundred years. There were little to no rock formations in most of the dormitory area due to it being sealed shortly after the last human _gone_.

She shuffled to the small bed area of the studio apartment, the mattress had long since rotted away, but the base was still there. When she had asked Aloy to make this stop she had been silently praying that she would not find her departed lover in their old room. But it would be as close as she got to see her again.

Sitting down Nadia felt that her resolve was on the verge of failing. When her mother had died, she had felt a profound sense of loss, but even still she never cried. She didn't want her to die, but she did, that sort of thing happened. There was a part of her that was missing after that, even still she never cried. But as she sat there looking over the remains of what might have been the rest of her life she felt a sadness she had never before experienced. Still, there were no tears.

Then her eyes landed on a data-tablet on the table beside the bed. Beside it was a small round object that was dusty. Nadia's hand slowly reached forward, and her finger picked up the object, there was a noticeable weight to it, not much but enough to tell. On the inside of the metal ring, Nadia saw the letters _N.O. Love you. :3_

Her breath hitched. It was her wedding ring.

Her focus blinked alerting her that it was extracting a recovered file from the tablet. It was a recording. She initiated playback of the partially recovered file.

Instantly a holo image of her self in a white knee-high suite, she was smiling. In front of her was Hannah in her wheelchair in a white dress, around her head was a crown of small white flowers. A disembodied voice was head as the two smiled at each other.

 _'Do you Nadia take Hannah to be your wedded wife, to have and to hold for all the days you live.'_

 _''Yes, I do.' Holo-Nadia with a shake of her head._

 _"Hannah, do you take Nadia to have and to hold for all the days you live?"_

 _"I do." She said, her eyes never leaving Nadia's._

 _"Now both of you have a few words you would like to say."_

 _Hannah spoke up first. "I never thought I would meet anyone like you, Nadia. I mean you're so smart and caring. Even if you don't realize it all the time. You don't overthink love it just is to you. I admit there were many times I didn't understand you, but I think after the last few years I do. So, thank you for loving me.'_

Nadia watched as her Holo-self rolled Hannah's words around in her head. She knew what her younger counterpart was thinking. 'Is what I'm about to say going to get me in trouble?'

 _'Umm, did you just call me love-dumb?' Halo-Nadia asked._

 _Hannah thought for a moment looking around and going back over her words. 'No, I was going for idiot savant of love.'_

 _'Oh okay… You there is something of a functional process to love right I do put forth effort to achieve…'_

 _Another female disembody voice spoke up. 'Nadia, deliver your vows and move this along, we all know you're obliviousness to social interaction.' Nadia looked around and had the forethought to being embarrassed._

 _'Sorry mother,' Then she turned back to Hannah. 'You're more than likely right. I don't know the in an outs of love in the way everyone else thinks about it, but I know that being with you makes my day a little brighter, the air a little fresher. I can't come up with an equation to quantify love, I mean I could, but the parameters would be really vast, and there would be really no point to the data.'_

 _'Nadia!' Shouted the same voice as before._

 _'But. I think I already solve the problem without even trying. You are the answer to the equation, one. You are my one. Thank you for putting up with me, thank you for making me your one. I love you.'_

The holo cut out and the room as silent again. It was the same week that Hannah had graduated high school, she planned to go to college to be a teacher, and later majored in elementary education. Nadia only then realized that tears were streaking down her face, it was now all too real to her. The hole left from her mother dying had grown now that her love was gone. To Nadia wasn't that she loved Hannah, to her then, and now to Nadia Hannah had been love. A literal, physical thing in human form and she would never have it/her back.

"Another file was recovered." Came the voice of her focus. Nadia queued it up, and it too plays, the message that said the video was not available.

 _'Elizabet, Mr. Faro what's going on. No one will tell me where Nadia is, and she has been missing for two days now.'_

 _'Maybe we should take a seat.' Came Ted's nerves tone. There was a giggle from Hannah._

 _'Christ Ted, really.' Came the indignant replay from Elizabet._

 _'Sorry, sorry I just, its been a long few days and well… Listen, Hannah, I'm sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but there was an accident. We only recently found out that Nadia's convoy from GAIA prom was ambushed by a terrorist group. There were no survivors. We only found this ring, like the one you have there. I'm sorry. If there is….'_

The file ended. Nadia looked at the small dark gray ring in her hand. It was made from Titanium. At the time they picked them out Nadia had insisted that it was the best metal that would last, apparently she had been right.

Another file was recovered, this one a text file.

/ _From E. Sobeck_

/To: H. Odine

 _I need you to be ready in the next few minutes I'm on the way to get you now. Be ready._

 _\- Elizabet_

At least, Hannah had Elizabet in the end. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye, and I'm sorry I… I'm sorry. I'm going to help Aloy save GAIA, I'm going to make this right, one way or another Love. I'm going to take it all back, get back everything that we lost. I promise you that."

Nadia wiped the tears from her eyes her breath still shuddering as she tried to not sob openly. "I have to go now." Nadia stood and began to make her way out of the room but stopped for a moment when she looked and saw a small device on the kitchen table. Nadia smiled when she picked up the device, it was dead, but she guessed the data might still be there if she could rig a power cell for it. All the worlds knowledge might have been lost, but if she could get it to work again the world could at least have some good music from the past.

-=!=-_-=!=-

The exit from Zero Dawn was much more solemn for the two of us. Nadia did seem less tense and pleased with finding a device a music device. She also found a ring, it was obvious how she kept fidgeting with it that there was a story but now was not the time.

Upon Nadia's urging, we made out way to an exit to Zero Dawn that didn't involve walking through the heart of the Shadow Carja. Our time her was coming to an end, on an upbeat no less.

But someways the world just keeps piling it on.

We heard the footsteps before we saw them, we froze as the first of the men came around the far end of the hall. For a moment neither Nadia and I or the Hunters moved. Then came the expected exclamation.

"HA! Is that, it's the redhead! Guys, it's her, she's back!" Three more Carja joined the first two. There was nowhere to hide in the hallway, farther back there had been a branch off of it and at the same time the both of us took a step back. Automatically I pulled my bow and knocked an arrow. Nadia likewise pulled her sling and around. I hoped it wasn't an explosive, I wasn't so sure about some of these tunnels. I fired as they advanced but the group spread apart, and the arrow hit the wall behind them.

"Nadia, run," I whispered. She nodded and leash the slug she had readied in her sling as we both turned and ran. As we ran, I expected to hear an explosion, but none came. There was a _whoomm_ sound, but that was all.

"Really Nadia I expected more," I said as two arrows skimmed past our feet.

"Wait for it," She said as she chanced a glance back. We were just about to pass the hall we passed only moments ago when from the other end of the hall three more Carja came around bows up and suddenly arrows unleashed. I pushed Nadia to the left as I ducked to the right, even still one of the arrows grazed me in my left leg. It hurt, but the arrow didn't hit home. Nadia righted herself and scrambled to double back. "The hall!" She shouted.

I followed suit I knocked another arrow and losing it before turning. The sound of footsteps and a _thunk_ followed by a loud meaty _smack_ came from behind me. The sound of my arrow hitting home in one of the Carja. I rounded the corner of the hall just a step behind Nadia, an arrow passed between the two of us and another right behind me. I felt another arrow zip through my hair and I yelped. _Close_ wasn't even a good enough word. I felt it tear a few strands as it passed and clatter against the wall.

"Shit!" I said just as a bright flash and insanely loud _bang_ went off down the hall.

"Told you!" Nadia called as we ran.

"I really hope this is a way out!" I said desperately as we ran. The flash bomb Nadia fired might have bought us a few minutes but not much.

We ran, then we started passing a few double doors. Then Nadia stopped, she changed direction and shoulder into the door. "Maybe it is, I hope. This was an Orbital Launch Platform staging area. We're in the test area." As soon as we were through the door Nadia looked around frantically, thinking fast she grabbed a broken pipe laying on the ground and shoved it through the door handles to block the door. We both backed away from the door, I reached in a back and pulled out two sling rounds, pressed the activator on them and tossed them a few feet from the door.

"Those are proximity round, don't go near them." I took in the room. It was large and cavernous. There were two large machines in the middle of the room, both were on rails and had seats on them, on the back was contraption that seemed familiar. Nadia went over to a console and began working. After a few minutes, red lights started flashing, and a klaxon when off. Large doors that closed over the tracks started to open, and there were runway lights flashing down the long tracks.

 _OPENING IGNITION TEST DOORS ONE THROUGH FOUR. MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION! DOOR FOUR JAMMED…. MALFUNCTION!_

"Shit!" Nadia cursed. I can over to the terminal that was located behind, and L shaped high wall make into the wall. Nadia's eyes ran over the room, I could see she was taking everything and evaluating our options. "Got any more explosives on you, sling rounds, anything?" I quickly put started rutting around in my bag and produced four more explosive rounds, two proximity rounds. Nadia opened her pouch, and I added my lot to the three devices she had within. One of them larger than the others.

There was banging at the door, and we both looked at the same time. "Put this bag on the first sled. Strap it to a seat," Another bang, the wrenching sound of metal. "Hurry."

I nodded looking back where the Carja were working to get through the door and from the sound of it they were making headway. The sled had a shield glass in front of four seats. Each seat a metal harness big enough for a human passenger. Knowing this I had a horrible feeling.

 _SYSTEM OVERRIDE! WARNING DOOR 4 MALFUNCTION!_

I fashioned the bag strap around one of the harnesses. I ran back over to Nadia behind the terminal, Nadia spared me a glance before typing a few keys.

 _SYSTEM TEST INITIATED 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… IGNITION!_

"Whatever you are doing Nadia you should hurry because we're about to have a large audience from the sound of what's behind the door." As if to answer me there was an explosion from the doorway. Just then the sled I put the explosives on took off as the back part of the sled lite up in a blue flame fired off. The sled shot off like an arrow down the track. The blue fire from the back of the sled glowed brightly down the track just as more than ten Carja came around. I knew where I had seen the thing on the back of the sled, it was similar to the thrusters on a Thunderbird.

"Okay new plan, I hoped the door would hold longer…"

There was a large blue and red explosion down the long hall where the sled had traveled. The track was long, and I could only see a twinkling at the end where the fire was. "We'll never be able to make it down the tunnel without taking an arrow to the back."

"I know. Get ready to run for the sled." I suddenly had a bad feeling.

 _SYSTEM OVERRIDE!_ _SYSTEM TEST INITIATED… 15… 14… 13… 12… 11…_

"I have one flash left," Nadia said loading it into her sling. She then arched it up and let it fly. The flash went off, and I heard the groan of several men. "Go!"

 _10… 9… 8… 7… 6…_

A few arrows flew at us, I felt, and arrow strikes the shielded platting on my shoulder. I heard another cry from behind me, but Nadia's footsteps didn't stop. I jumped the last few feet to the sled and turned to see Nadia right behind me. I reached forward, and she took my hand as I pulled her on with me.

 _5… 4…_

"Strap in!" Nadia shouted as she sat and pulling a harness over her with a click.

 _3… 2…_

I followed suit pulling the ancient harness down. "Is this going to work?"

1…

"Maybe…"

 _IGNITION!_

There was a rumbling, then shouts from behind us. Then I felt the most intense force I had ever felt. Falling was one thing. But this was like nothing I had felt. I was being forced in the seat the light on the wall flew by so fast that I couldn't even count them. The blue and red flames of the first sled were swiftly getting bigger. The roaring of the engine was louder than a Thunderjaw. Then the roar stopped, but we kept moving, the force was not as bad, but we continued forward.

The rubble and flames and the broken remnants of the door banged and out sled hit it, and suddenly we were spinning. The sled tumbled, and I gritted my teeth, I head Nadia scream over the roar of crashing metal and the dust.

Then the world stopped spinning.

I chanced a glance around and saw stars. We made it out, I looked at Nadia and saw her looking around like a scared raccoon. "Alive… We're alive…" Nadia said through chattering teeth.

"Yep." Was my only reply. "That was a crazy plan."

"I miscalculated the timing. I thought we would come to a gentle stop before the track ran out." Nadia pressed the button on her harness, and it let go, and she tumbled two feet to the ground. I followed just after. It took a few minutes to get our barrings, Nadia tried to stand but tumbled sideways comically and rolled to her back and laughed. "Were Alive. I can't believe we lived."

I leaned on the sled and looked over my bag, everything was still there GAIA was still there. I smiled at Nadia. "Yeah. The hardest part is over right."

Nadia would later tell me that those were famous last words and never had they been truer.

-=A=-_-=A=-

Menially scowled as she read over another report. For the past week, she had laid in the medical wing in quarantine. It was miserable. Sure, she could take control of one of the servitor drones and keep working, but it just wasn't the same as getting her hands on something, really digging in. So, she sat adjusted timelines, revised projects, and updated project goals.

The screen in front of her was playing some show that she wasn't paying attention too. It was just white noise. Another report was finished and sent out. She finally reached a report from the night before regarding her newest past time. It seemed after a week of nothing Aloy and Nadia made it to the Zero Dawn facility, presumably to find the hard copies of GAIA. But it disturbed her as the report showed that they were completely off her radar for almost an hour.

One of the observation reports did say that Nadia had mentioned a vault, maybe it was cut off from the outside. That made rational sense to her, so it wasn't such a shock. Now the two were head north. Menially wasn't sure where the Site-B place was nor, did she know where Ted Faro's bunker was. But the direction they were headed did interest Menially, it had perplexed her for years what happened in that area. By her calculation, there should be heavy seismic and volcanic activity, but from what her satellites could find there was nothing even with a large amount of volcanic smoke that was constantly thrown into the air.

Several hot spots denoted civilization settings, but the volcanic activity was by far the most significant heat source. Overlays showed that the area was once a National Park called Yellow Stone. The images that she could pull up she found pleasing to the eye. Small pools of water here and there in some photos, yellows, and blues within the pools. Large lakes, a plateaus and mountain ranges. She perked up even more at seeing a large mammal in a few photos. Its large fuzzy head had horns on the left and right, and its back was massive and bulky.

"Aren't you a fuzzy thing… I bet your head is soft. Note to self-find out if we have Buffalo genome samples available. Side note, pet buffalo's head. It looks really fuzzy." Menially smiled. She was going to pet a buffalo sometime in the future.

Even after hundreds of years the remains of tall buildings still stood in the brain desert of what was once the state of Nevada. Where once thousands of people a day would walk the strip of buildings now there was nothing. Once the brightest city in the old world with billboards and lights advertising great attractions. Becoming those with wealth to burn to play the man games of chance. The glitz and glitter of its heyday long since passed. Lives remade and ruined in one toss of the dice.

Now it was barren, dead, the desert even now still working on reclaiming the man-made ruins and wash it completely away. No human had set foot here in hundreds of years, even those humans that prided themselves on being scavengers stayed clear. Those that had come to this desolate and forsaken territory told tales of a beast fiercer than any other they had seen.

However, FAS-B345T didn't know this, nor did the AF112 – CHIMERA as it came in for a landing on what was once the Las Vegas strip. For landing on the sand, it did an admirable job, and should the need arise it could again take off. Its payload, however, was not surface to air missiles per the usual payload package but rather a FAS-R4MSRT, better known to the humans that created as a Mass Spectrum Relay Transmitter. Upon landing the CHIMERA executed its next task, activating the Mass Relay so that it could then talk to the next Mass Relay and the next and the next until the signal it was transmitting reached it Mother Base. After 243.00394 seconds all the relays were synced and connecting back to Mother Base where B345T waited.

With a TTL, time till life, between Mother Base and CHIMERA112's relay it took a total of 1 minute and 21 seconds. Not a long time for a human but to B345T this was a long time. But B345T did not care, with its connection to the area is began the next phase of its operation.

[ASSET AF112-CHIMERA HAS REACHED PRIMARY OBJECTIVES AREA OF OPERATIONS]

[ASSESSING LOCAL ASSETS = PLEASE WAIT]

[144x STANDARD UNITS IN STANDBY]

[21x STANDARD UNITS USABLE]

[SEARCHING FOR NONSTANDARD UNITS = PLEASE WAIT]

[….]

[ONE ASSET AVAILABLE SYSID: MANTICORE]

[LOADING PANDORA PROGRAM]

[PANDORA ONLINE – SEIZE NETWORK CONTROL OF ALL VIABLE ASSETS = PLEASE WAIT]

[….]

[ESTABLIHING LINK WITH SITE-B MAINFRAME]

[ERROR SITE-B FACILITY IN CLASS 5 LOCKDOWN DIRECT ACCESS REQUIRED]

[PANDORA UPDATE – ALL VIABLE ASSETS ONLINE AND AWAITING ORDERS]

[….]

After almost one hundred years of life, the great beast that roamed what was once Las Vegas was not alone as the same Faro robots that once destroyed the world came back to life. Now given new names by the world inhabitance, names like death bringer, and corruptor. After several minutes and a very short wrestling match from a 3rd party AI that learned its place MANTICORE was placed in charge of the newly awakened robots. This pack now answered to only one master, casting off the chains of HEPHAESTUS it brought its new pack to task. Soon it would uncover the entrance of Site-B as per its first order of business. Then the direct access its master, B345T, would need to access the facility's systems.

[MANTICORE – EXECUTING ORDERS PER MASTERS INSTRUCTIONS _NYAN!_ ]

[OPERATIONS UPDATE = GOOD BOY]

[RETURNING TO NORMAL OPERATIONS]

[….]

[HAVE A NICE DAY ^w^]

-END OF LINE-

* * *

Any way I hope you all enjoyed. So now you know where Site-B is and oh look something horrible is there that Hephaestus made, and FAS-B345T took over. So now Manticore belongs to FAS-B345T along with a few other robots, I'm sure a few Death Bringers and Corruptors (less the corruption part because FAS-B345T doesn't need to corrupt it just hacks them and takes over.)

I always assumed that the _corruption_ had a nanite element since it actually affected you, at least that's what I assume -shrug-

There were no questions for the last chapter so well more on to the note…

For the last few days I have been agenizing over this as well as my Twilight story. I had a really hard time with getting Aloy and Nadia out of Mothers Heart. I just never could figure out how I wanted to address it. Then I decided that leaving it kind of open was for the best just, so I could move the story along. I hope I'm not making the characters seem bi-polar I feel like there was a lot of emotion in this chapter and hopefully I have explained some of my _science_ enough that it doesn't sound dumb.

While I do not want to take away from the games story I do want to note that with everything going on Elizabet would not have time to dedicate to creating and educating GAIA alone. So, while in the game you never see them I hope this might shine some idea that there was more than just here in the back ground bringing GAIA into the world.

Please let me know what you think I love hearing from you all.


End file.
